(Previous Incident Code: Ob305 )

Up to five people were reported killed in a drone strike in the Shawal valley area on the borders of North and South Waziristan.

Dawn reported intelligence officials as saying that a house in Gurbaz was bombed. AFP reported that while one official claimed those killed were in ‘a house believed to be a militant centre,’ another official said that ‘we have no information about the identity of those killed in the missile strike’.

The Nation reported four were killed ‘on the spot’, and added, “Soon after the attack, a large number of local tribesmen gathered at the site to retrieve the dead bodies from the debris… [the] Identity of the dead could not be ascertained.”

The same report described the dead as ‘people’ rather than ‘militants’, but cited agency speculation that the dead could include ‘high-profile militants’. The News International also referred to the dead as ‘people’ and quoted official and tribal sources as saying this was the first drone strike to take place in cloudy weather. ‘There was heavy snowfall in Shawal valley when the drone fired missiles and targeted a house,’ an unnamed official told the paper.