(Previous Incident Code: Ob272 )

The CIA’s drones returned to the attack for the second time in 24 hours, killing at least eight people. A house and a nearby mosque were hit as villagers attended morning prayers. It is not clear which building was the primary target although  a 2013 Amnesty International report said the mosque was destroyed and some houses nearby were damaged. Amnesty’s field investigation found eight were killed in the attack – four Taliban and four foreign fighters. Of the Taliban, two were named in the report: Abdul Samad Dawar and Hakimullah Dawar. Associated Press’ sources said that ‘most of those killed were Uzbek insurgents‘ and said the attack targeted a ‘militant hideout’. Researchers at Stanford University and New York University noted that an Associated Press report filed four days later referred to the strike but still did not mention multiple reports that a mosque had been hit.

A Bureau field investigation found this was a follow-up or ‘double-tap’ strike. A number of people had gathered in a small makeshift mosque, more were sitting outside because ‘the high temperatures in the summer mean early morning Fajr prayers are often held in fields’. Drones attacked the gathering, firing two missiles and hitting the mosque. Four people, thought to be Arabs and Turkmen, were killed in the first strike. Ten or 20 minutes later, six or seven people including local Dawar tribesmen arrived to rescue the wounded. As they were pulling bodies from the rubble the drones returned and fired four more missiles. Six perished in the second strike and 12 more were seriously injured. Two died of their injuries in a Mir Ali medical facility. The Bureau’s researchers did not find any evidence civilians were killed in this strike.

However AFP reported at least three civilians died when the mosque was struck during morning prayers. A security official told the news agency that three worshipers, believed to be Central Asians, ‘were seriously wounded and died later in the hospital.’ Channel 4 News said that most of the dead were local villagers, with four of 12 killed being ‘foreign fighters, believed to be Turkmen’. KUNA reported tribal elders as saying that all of those killed were ‘innocent local tribesmen’. Villager Mohammad Roshan Dawar later told The News:

Some of the people had offered the prayers and were leaving the mosque. Others were still praying and some were reciting the Holy Quran, when the drone fired two missiles and struck the mosque. The small structure of the mosque was demolished in the attack and those present inside were buried under the debris of the building.

The wounded were reportedly taken to Miranshah Agency Headquarters Hospital, where an anonymous doctor complained that the injured ‘were brought to us in a serious condition and had suffered multiple injuries. Also, we do not have any facility here in the hospital to save lives of seriously injured patients. Let alone other facilities, the only X-ray machine at the hospital is also out of order’.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesman told reporter: ‘We strongly condemn the drone attacks. We regard them a violation of our territorial integrity. They are in contravention of international law. They are illegal, counter-productive and totally unacceptable.’ He added that ‘matters related to NATO supply [and] drone attacks are under discussion with the US, and that ‘Pakistan wants to solve the matter of drones with the US through negotiation rather to move UN Security Council or the International Court of Justice.’ The strike occurred on the same day that Amnesty International issued its annual report, in which it again raised concerns that US covert drone strikes ‘appear to have amounted to extrajudicial executions.’