(Previous Incident Code: T006 )

Numerous sources reported a strike in Pakistan. Two to three people were killed, with most sources claiming them as militants, but Xinhua News states that conflicted reports have surfaced as some argue that the house hit in the attack belonged to Afghan refugees, whereas others stated that it belonged to a Haqqani Network commander.

The deaths have been confirmed by a Station House officer named Ameer Zaman. A local official speaking to Anadolu Agency on conditions of anonymity said the men were both Afghan refugees and mid-level Haqqani Network commanders, which may explain the confusion. Two intelligence officials named the two reported killed as Nasir Mehsud and Ahsanullah, who, according to a local official, had the alias Khorai. Pakistan Daily identifies one commander as Ehsan alias Khawari, whilst citing the death of two more militants. A senior government official in Kurram told AFP one mid-level Haqqani commander named Nasir Mehmood, also known as Ihsanullah Khurya, was killed. The alias provided appears to be very similar to the name of the second fighter given by the intelligence officials.

There is a dispute as to where the strike happened. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry claimed that Resolute Support, the US-led Nato mission in Afghanistan, carried out the strike on an Afghan refugee camp in Kurram Agency. The US Embassy spokesperson in Islamabad denied that a US strike hit a refugee camp. In a Department of Defence press briefing, Col. Rob Manning III, director of press operations, stated there had been no DoD air strikes outside of Afghanistan on January 24.

The UN refugee agency also said it doesn’t have refugee camps in the tribal areas, where the foreign ministry said the strike took place. The Pakistan military meanwhile said it hit Spintal, Hangu district, which is in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and not the tribal areas. The district does border Kurram. According to them, there are 43 camps in KP “with overlap” in the tribal areas. The strike, it said, hit an “individual target who had morphed into Afghan refugees”.

There was some confusion over where it hit. Ameer Zaman, said the strike occurred in Dapa Mumuzai village in Pakistan’s Kurram Agency. Local officials told The News the strike took place in Spin Tal Dapa, which was reported elsewhere as being called Spin Tal Dappah Mamozai, described an area bordering Kurram and Orakzai, another agency in Pakistan’s tribal areas. Xinhua placed the strike in Orakzai.

The Express Tribune said it was in Speen Thall between the border of Hangu district in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Orakzai. Speen Thall falls very near Hangu district’s border with the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan (FATA). Hangu is however in the so-called settled areas of Pakistan.