#3 Additional details...
In a second precision strike within a month, a missile widely believed to have been fired by an unmanned US plane, struck a house in the Kalosha village near the Afghan border in South Waziristan around 2 AM on February 28, 2008, killing at least 12 persons, of whom four were reportedly Arabs, two Turkmen and two Pakistanis. Three non-Pakistanis were injured and were evacuated by fellow-jihadis. There is so far no indication regarding the identities of those killed.
The strike of February 28 was apparently as precise as that of January 29, 2008, and would have been possible only with human intelligence (HUMINT) and not technical intelligence (TECHINT).A significant sequel to the January 29 strike was there were no major protest demonstrations against the US by the villagers in the targeted area. This was because the strike and the HUMINT on which it was based were so accurate that there were no collateral civilian casualties. The lack of major demonstrations showed that the villagers do not mind precisely targeted attacks on jihadi terrorists provided the attacks kill only known terrorists and not innocent civilians.
In the past, almost every suspected US missile strike in the tribal belt had been followed by violent demonstrations because the strikes were based on intelligence, which proved to have been inaccurate, and resulted in the death of a large number of innocent civilians. Recent strikes by the US forces on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border have been more precise and more successful in avoiding innocent civilian casualties.
It would be interesting to see whether there is any demonstration by the people of the area against the missile strike of February 28, 2008. It is not yet known whether there were any collateral casualties of civilians.
In an effort to improve HUMINT collection, the US intelligence had been announcing from time to time since 9/11 huge cash rewards amounting to millions of dollars to anyone providing accurate information relating to bin Laden, al-Zawahiri and other important terrorists operating from the tribal areas. Till the end of last year, there were not many takers for these reward amounts. Since the beginning of this year, there are indications that these offers of huge rewards have started helping in HUMINT collection.
bin Laden, Zawahiri and co must be worried men.
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080228&fname=raman&sid=1 |
Media reports describe another U.S. airstrike within Pakistan, targeting a home that was a suspected Taliban safe house with foreign fighters.