(Previous Incident Code: Ob359 )

The second strike of the year killed 5-7 people in a strike on a house. The CIA drones reportedly hit the building with two missiles, setting it on fire.

Ahmed Farouq, a US citizen and senior al Qaeda leader, was confirmed killed by the White House in a January 2015 drone strike. President Obama said Farouq was killed in the same strike as two hostages of al Qaeda: Italian Giovanni Lo Porto and American Dr Warren Weinstein. According to Dawn, an Usted Ahmed Farouq was killed in this strike. Confusingly, al Qaeda said he was a Pakistani and al Qaeda Asia’s deputy leader. It appears the Farouq first reported killed by Dawn was the same as US citizen and senior figure in al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent.

Weinstein and Lo Porto had spent years in captivity when they were killed. Obama issued a public apology to their families in April and launched an investigation into the circumstances of their death. In September 2015 it emerged the CIA’s inspector-general was investigating the circumstances around what the Washington Post described as a “surveillance lapse”. The CIA reportedly detected a Western hostage held by al Qaeda in Pakistan a year before this strike, but “did not keep the person under drone surveillance”.