(Previous Incident Code: Ob234 )

Up to four alleged militants and/ or local tribesmen were killed in a strike on a moving car. The News reported that ‘there was no information about the identity of the slain men, but Qutabkhel villagers claimed they were local tribesmen and were on their way to the village from Miramshah’ suggesting that the three cited as killed in The News’ article may have been civilians. The article also stated that ‘Tribal sources said the CIA-operated spy planes disappeared for some time in the past few weeks due to unknown reasons, but suddenly reappeared on Tuesday and launched the attack.’  There was some speculation that this might be linked to the recent resignation of the CIA’s station chief in Islamabad.