(Previous Incident Code: Ob251 )

An attack on a vehicle and house near the town of Mir Ali, North Waziristan killed up to four alleged militants, according to initial reports. Intelligence officials reported that the house collapsed. The following day reports emerged of two teenagers killed in the attack while traveling in a car, named as Tariq Aziz or Tariq Khan, aged 16 and his cousin Waheed, initially reported to be aged 12. According to Kareem Khan, a campaigner against the drone strikes who himself lost a son in a 2010 strike, Tariq had attended an anti-drone rally in Islamabad just days beforehand. Tariq’s uncle told the BBC:

We condemn this very strongly. He was just a normal boy who loved football.’

In December 2011 ABC News ran a major story on the attack, which raised  questions about the strike: ‘A US official acknowledged to ABC News that the car was targeted by the CIA, but said the two people inside it were militants, and that neither occupant was a 12-year-old.’ A video of the boys’ funeral seen by the Bureau shows their photographs on top of coffins, and indicates that Waheed was apparently older than 12 – and was most likely in his mid- to late-teens. ABC News describes the same video:

Pakistanis are seen performing traditional rites of mourning, with two families lined up along two straight lines of chalk drawn on the ground. Two caskets sit on a table with Tariq’s and Waheed’s photos on top of them. At one point, a family member lifts the shroud on one of the bodies to reveal a badly burned torso. The faces of the shrouded bodies are never shown.