(Previous Incident Code: Ob295 )

At least three people were killed in a 9pm strike on a building south of Mir Ali. A single CIA drone reportedly fired two missiles. Some sources had it hitting a ‘mud compound‘ said to be ‘known as a bastion of the Taliban and al Qaeda‘. However an internal Pakistani record of drone strikes, published by the Bureau in January 2014, said this strike hit a dispensary.

The strike was said to have killed Abu Kasha al Iraqi, ‘reported to be a liaison between al Qaeda and the Taliban’ and a second ‘al Qaeda operative’ named as Saleh Al-Turki. Dawn reported local sources as saying that both men were buried that night. Al Iraqi was first reported killed in October 2008 (B38). The others killed were said to be ‘foreigners’. However the bodies ‘were burnt in the attack and were beyond recognition’.

Local tribesmen said that four drones had been flying over the area since the afternoon.

A Pakistani security official told the New York Times al Turki was a field operative, saying: ‘He was not on the FBI’s bounty list, but was a mid-level AQ guy.’ Al Iraqi was said to be ‘long a target of Western counterterrorism agencies’. He had been living in Pakistan’s border regions for 15 years and had married a local tribal cleric’s daughter.

US intelligence officials told the Long War Journal they were aware of the reports of the deaths but would not confirm if the two men had died in the strike. They would not confirm or deny if the two had been the target of the strike. But one did say al Iraqi ‘has been on our list for quite some time.’