(Previous Incident Code: Ob94 )

In this significant incident, the US allegedly carried out a drone strike in Boya, Mohammed Khel, north Waziristan, that killed up to ten civilians and wounded another ten, mostly children and women from the same family as a key al-Qaeda figure was targeted and killed. Meanwhile, other sources claimed that only militants were killed.

A senior militant and a large number of civilians were reported killed in an attack on a vehicle convoy which also destroyed nearby buildings. Following the strike, reports put the death toll at between four and ten. Though most reported the death of al-Qaeda’s key figure Mustafa Abu Yazid, sources were conflicting as to whether the remaining fatalities were civilians or militants.

CNN said that just four militants were killed while others, such as The Long war Journal, said as many as ten militants died.

However, multiple sources reported that, in fact, many of Yazid’s family members were killed and wounded, hereof mostly children and women.  Various media reported that between five and nine civilians died; including one to four women and two to seven children. Local photographer Noor Behram reached the scene shortly afterwards, and reported that brother and sister Nisar and Fatima were killed along with their mother; and that Naeem and his mother were also killed. All were members of Shams Ullah‘s family.

Dawn cited one of the injured who said the his house was near the compound hit by missiles, and that five members of his family; three children and two women, were killed in the attack.

An al Qaeda statement released shortly after the strike and an internal communication confirmed Abu Yazid’s wife, three daughters and a granddaughter died in the attack. One “Arab” and four “local militants” were also reported killed.

Also, al Qaeda, which later confirmed that its chief finance official and Afghanistran commander Mustafa Abu Yazid (aka Saeed al Masri) had died in the attack (describing him as ‘the Prince of financial Princes’), said the strike was on a “convoy of martyrs.”

The Washington Post reported Yazid’s death in February 2011 along with Ahmed Mohammed Hamed Ali. It is not clear when Hamed Ali died in 2010. His name was removed from the UN list of al Qaeda terrorists in March 2015.

Moreover, between seven and ten civilians were reported injured; spanning from two to four children and three to six women. Dawn reported that five women and five children were injured, described as relatives of a man named as Khaili Jan. AFP reported that Jan had rented out his home “to a militant group attached with Taliban-linked Afghan warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur.”

A munitions fragment found at the scene was later linked to a Hellfire missile manufactured by Lockheed Martin. Clive Stafford-Smith of Reprieve wrote of the case:

“Forensically, it is important to show how the crime of murder happened (which is what it is here). One almost always uses the murder weapon in a case. But perhaps more important I think this physical proof — this missile killed this child [Fatima] — is important to have people take it seriously.”

All known sources, including witnesses on the ground agreed that the strike was carried out by US forces, though the strike is yet to be confirmed by the US.