(Previous Incident Code: Ob97 )

Less than 12 hours after an airstrike in north Waziristan (detailed in Ob96), a US drone reportedly launched up to seven missiles in Maizer Madakhel, killing up to 15 people and wounding a dozen, local and international media reported, who, however, where unclear whether the victims where militants or civilians.

The early morning strike that destroyed two houses, killed at least nine but as many as 15. Circling drones “created panic” among villagers following the attack, according to reports. A local resident told Pajhwok: “Soon after the attack, men toting machineguns arrived in three pick-up vehicles and cordoned off the area, the resident said. The dead and wounded were taken from beneath the rubble of the house.”

Several reports said that the killed were militants and included  “Arabs, Uzbeks and Chechens.” Moreover, in the day after the attack a press release from the Taifatul Mansura Group named three men killed in US drone strike on June 10 or June 11. They were: al Qaeda’s Sheikh Ihsanullah; Abu Ibrahim, ‘a commander of the Fursan i Mohammed Group’; and Harun – described as a Turkish fighter. It is not clear if the three were killed in Ob96 or Ob97.

Meanwhile, several reports, such as GeoTV, reported that between nine and 15 “people” were killed in addition to between three and 12 wounded. Civilian harm can therefore not be excluded and the killed will, as of now, be treated as possible being civilians.

Finally, all known sources said that the strike was the work of an American drone.