(Previous Incident Code: Ob320 )

At least 16 people were killed when CIA drones hit a house and vehicle in or around the Miranshah bazaar, although it is unclear whether these were civilians or militants. Casualty figures were low in initial reports, Daily Times for example put the death toll at two people, but rose as the day wore on. In October 2013, an Amnesty International field investigation found 16 people killed in the strike were ‘Afghan Taliban, Punjabi Taliban, and foreign fighters’.

Three weeks after the attack anonymous “senior American officials” told AP the US had cut the number of attacks and tightened its targeting policy as a concession to the Pakistan army. AP said this attack typified this more cautious approach. The strike was reportedly based on “hugely detailed” intelligence “laid out in a 32-page PowerPoint presentation”. According to the report:

The intelligence indicated the target was a gathering of militants from the Haqqani network who were plotting a second attack on the Ariana Hotel in the Afghan capital of Kabul, said the official. The Ariana Hotel has long been suspected of being used by the CIA as a listening post.

Anonymous officials told Spanish agency EFE the Haqqani commander Sher Khan died in the attack. Afghan or Central Asian militants and Punjabi Taliban fighters were also reportedly killed. Several outlets later reported the names of four more alleged militants: Abu Saif al Jaziri (aka Abu Saif al Jazari, Abu Yousaf Aljaziri), Maulana Akhtar Zadran, Rana Ashraf and Navid Butt.

The Long War Journal spoke to US intelligence officials who would neither confirm nor deny the men died in the strike. However, one of the anonymous intelligence sources said al Jaziri was a “mid-level paramilitary commander” in al Qaeda; other reports described him as an al Qaeda commander or operative.

Another anonymous source said Zadran was a senior Haqqani Network commander. Ashraf was reportedly from Sargodha in Pakistan’s Punjab province. And Butt was reportedly from Lahore, also in Punjab, near the border with India. Both were described as either Punjabi militants or Punjabi commanders. Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said no TTP militants were killed.

The attack either hit at about 1am local time, or late the previous day. It was the first strike in 24 days and was probably the most lethal to date in 2013. Four missiles were reportedly fired. The blast “jolted the entire town”, resident Nasrullah Khan told NBC News. “I never heard such a huge drone strike before.”

One report said the house had been built only a month before the strike. It reportedly belonged to senior Haqqani commander Haji Shahrifullah who allegedly survived the attack. But a separate source described the building as a motel, adding the casualties – alleged militants – had been staying there for some time and would patrol the surrounding streets in the daytime. And a third source said the house was being used as an informal Sharia court. Irrespective of its prior use, the building was reportedly flattened.

Islamabad’s foreign ministry protested the strike as a violation of sovereignty. It said: “The Government of Pakistan has consistently maintained that drone strikes are counter-productive, entail loss of innocent civilian lives and have human rights and humanitarian implications.”