US Predators struck yet again in Pakistain's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Wazoo.Six Taliban fighters, including some possibly from Afghanistan, were killed and five more were critically maimed in an attack on a compound in Miramshah, the main town in North Wazoo.
"Two US drones fired three missiles" at the compound, a Pak intelligence official told AFP. "We have reports that six gunnies were killed."
The Taliban reportedly cordoned off the area and are attempting to recover the dead and maimed from the rubble. No senior Taliban, Haqqani Network, or al Qaeda commanders have been reported killed at this time.
Miramshah is in the sphere of influence of the Haqqani Network, the al Qaeda-linked Taliban group led by mujahedeen commander Jalaluddin Haqqani and his son Siraj. The Haqqani family runs the Manba Ulom madrassa in Danda Darpa Khel, a village just outside of Miramshah that serves as a hub of activity for the terror group.
The strike is the fourth recorded in the past 24 hours. In the four strikes combined, 24 faceless myrmidons were reported killed. Earlier today, US Predators or the more powerful Reapers struck twice in Danda Darpa Khel and once in Datta Khel, a known hub for al Qaeda's leadership.
North Wazoo is a known haven for the Taliban, the Haqqani Network, al Qaeda, and a host of Pak and Central and South Asian terror groups, but the Pak military has refused to carry out an operation to root them out. The Pak military maintains a garrison in Miramshah, but it is confined to base while the US is forced to carry out airstrikes against the terror groups.
The number of strikes is unprecedented, as the US has yet to carry out four strikes in a 24-hour period since the campaign began in 2004 and was ramped up in July 2008.
With today's strikes, the US has carried out 62 attacks inside Pakistain this year. The US exceeded last year's strike total of 53 with a strike in Kurram late last month. In 2008, the US carried out 36 strikes inside Pakistain. [For up-to-date charts on the US air campaign in Pakistain, see LWJ Special Report, Charting the data for US airstrikes in Pakistain, 2004 - 2010.]