(Previous Incident Code: Ob333 )

Up to three possible civilians were killed in a drone strike against a town near Miranshah. However, the majority of sources reported that between three and six suspected militants were the ones killed in the strike. The only source that left doubt as to who the individuals killed was the Wall Street Journal, which reported only that three “people” were killed and following up with “the target wasn’t immediately clear.”

The first drone strike in almost six months reportedly hit a house and vehicle in Northwest Waziristan. Early reports put the death toll at three, rising to ‘at least four‘ in some sources with as many as six people reported by the Pakistani government. ‘According to intercepts of the militants, four were Uzbek militants and two members of the Punjabi Taliban,’ a Pakistani intelligence source said. The Conflict Monitoring Center identified those killed in the strikes as being from the Haqqani Network and of mostly Afghan and Pakistani origin.

An intelligence official said the drone targeted a pick-up truck parked against the outer wall of a housing compound, setting both on fire. However, locals told NBC that the vehicle had been driving through the village when it came under attack, and the damage to buildings may have been unintended: ‘Two nearby houses were partially damaged in the missile strikes, but the target was the truck,’ said resident Yar Mohammad.

An unnamed ‘senior intelligence official‘ said intercepted communications revealed: ‘One of the militants was asking others to reach the site and search for any one injured in the strike and also to dig out the dead bodies.’

The attack came days after peace talks between the Pakistani government and the Pakistan Taliban (TTP) conclusively collapsed with a bloody attack on Karachi Airport that reportedly killed at least 39 people, including 10 alleged militants. The TTP and Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), a group with a heavy presence in North Waziristan, described the airport attack as a ‘joint operation‘ and said it was in retaliation to the November 2013 drone strike that killed TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud, as well as to the multiple Pakistani military air strikes that have hit the region since the drone strikes stopped.

The lengthy pause in drone strikes was at the request of the Pakistani government, to allow peace talks with the TTP to take place, sources close to the negotiations told the Bureau. However terrorist attacks and retaliatory military air strikes on targets in the tribal belt continued throughout the hiatus in drone strikes. Following the attack on Karachi airport, the prospect of a full military operation in North Waziristan grew closer as defence minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif told TV channel ARY (quoted in the Wall Street Journal): ‘The talks option has been pursued with sincerity by the government, but no result has come.’