Posted on 01/14/2006 12:28:46 PM PST by saquin
Local officials in the Bajaur district, where the airstrike happened, said 18 civilians had been killed in the attack, including six children. But the senior Pakistani official who spoke of Mr. Zawahiri suggested that the death toll was higher, and he said that at least 11 militants had been killed in the attack. Seven of the dead were Arab fighters, and another four were Pakistani militants from Punjab Province, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the news media.
[...]
On Saturday, the Pakistani security official described some of the intelligence surrounding the airstrike. He said that a dinner at which Mr. Zawahiri was expected had been planned for Thursday night. A local cleric, Maulavi Liaqat, was at the dinner, but he left around midnight, the official said.
After the airstrike, Mr. Liaqat was again at the scene, and he had the bodies of the Arab militants pulled from the rubble and taken away, the security official said. A second cleric, Maulavi Atta Muhammad, took away the Pakistani militants, he said.
A second American official who acknowledged that Mr. Zawahiri had been the target of the strike said it was probably too soon to know for certain whether he had been at the scene.
Damadola has been the focus of previous security operations as well. The Pakistani authorities carried out an operation in the village in April 2004 against a cleric, Maulavi Faqir Mohammad, whom they blamed for giving sanctuary to militants. The maulavi has been at large since, but turned up on Friday and spoke at the funeral of the civilian dead, denouncing the strike, local residents said. He left the area immediately afterward.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Well, this is a good sign. We're operating within Pakistan's borders now (like, above-board). Eeeeexcellent. The noose is tightening around ol' OBL.
I think Pakistan will be better off for this action in the long run, however.
President Pervez Musharraf IS a true believer in the war on terror, but many of the senior officers and even the rank-and-file in his armed forces have loyalties to the terrorists. Joint operations are ALWAYS just a little too late, due to advanced warnings. Therefore, the US does what it must and the Pakistani Government officially complains about it.
Good timing. I am certain he had another late night dinner to go to.
We're to the point of reading Zawahiri's social calendar . . .
I'm not. They are openly aiding and abetting terrorists.
Take the baklava, leave the high explosives.
Plan A
Take the baklava, leave the high explosives.
I wish they had waited just a little longer and gotten Zawahiri while he was on the crapper.
So, was the "intended target" just a cover to justify a bombing requested by the Pakistani's?
Could someone take a look at the photo on the left of the
article. The caption is:
"Pakistani men with the remains of a missile fired at a house in the Bajur tribal zone near the Afghan border."
Does this look like a missile? If they were targetted by Predators, then I would have thought they'd have been hit by Hellfire missiles. This doesn't look like a Hellfire.
Which one? ;-)
LOL!
Looks like artillery
I think its an arty shell.
arty. Not ours.
You sure? It looks similar to one of our M650 203mm rounds.
Why in God's name are we allowing NYT crap furnished by Al Jeezeera to be published as if it is Gospel?
Anyone can sprinkle clothing over rubble and declare that the US murdered innocent non-combattants.
Why are we dignifying this idiocy?
Sorry, I meant not a Hellfire. Not a 155 either. I am not real up on old Soviet-era ordinance, but it looks like a duck.
Maybe you missed something. I am ridiculing Reuters and the AP. Viciously, ruthlessly, and mercilessly. They can not ask a pertinent question, and drag up photo's of weddings and group shots with their best anti-American drivel captioning. Yahoo even has a 10 year old girl with a nasal tube and dried blood on her face. Taken 3 days ago. They just can not let facts get in the way of "news".
Appears to be a U.K. M107 , 155MM HE round but the depth of the pic with it on the wall and the old raghead behind the wall suggest something bit smaller like a Yugoslav 122MM M462 or M76 HE round.......just a SWAG of course ......:o)
Somebody big got captured or killed.
The "noose is tightening"? That's horse excrement. 9/11 was 4 and a half years ago and we're just starting to "tighten the noose."
If Bush fails to bring OBL and Zawahiri to justice during his term of office it will be one of the big strikes against his legacy, which I have every reason to believe will be fairly impressive otherwise.
Apparently, we're operating in the open in Pakistan right now. That's better than the covert stuff we were doing before. Nothing against covert ops, but that kind of warfare is a cyanide-loaded syrigne, not a broadsword. OBL will be a lot easier to find if we don't have to worry about being seen over there.
As President Bush said just last week, "We're on the Hunt!"
I guess he means, "We're on the Hunt!"....
I am sure this raid was carried out with Pak collaboration, perhaps even at Pak behest. The government should probablydo some perfunctory handwringing about the "illegal" incursion for domestic consumption.
155 mm arty?
OBL has most likely met his justice a long time ago in Afghanistan. ElZ is just the next in a line.
There have been a number of incidents of civilian deaths in failed or misdirected American attacks in Afghanistan and along the border with Pakistan. In July 2002, dozens of Afghans at a wedding party were killed in an American bombing raid.... In December 2003, nine children and a 25-year-old man were killed in a strike from a Predator in Hutala, a village in a remote area of southern Ghazni Province....
The writers sure like to bang the drum about civilian casualties -- but only when they're caused by us, not by terrorists.
Everybody there knew they were entertaining Alqaida persons. If the women had their children there they must share in the results. Best stay at least shrapnel distance away from Alqaida types.
152mm Soviet
The NYTimes got scammed. Again.
Simple ignorance? Or simple malice?
Both?
Its an artillery shell. Looks like its been fired.
I don't think this is what was used to strike the building. This shell was probably in the building when it was hit by a hellfire. The militants may have salvaged "dud" artillery shells they intended to modify into IEDs or use as a source of raw explosives.
When you lay down with dogs, you get fleas.---And Bombed
A couple of thoughts:
How long did Randolph avoid capture? And he never left the US.
OBL could be dead. An NRO writer says hed died last December according to off the record Iranian sources. If he was/is in Iran killing him is probably not possible.
let me get this straight:
- there was a planned dinner with AZ, and US intel found out about it
- this cleric had a dinner invite with AZ
- he attended the dinner, left at midnight, then returned immediately after the airstrike
I think there might be some cleric who is $25 million dollars richer tonight.
I think the same thing.
I'm also thinking: If we killed all these innocent civilians where are the disturbing atrocity photos? I don't think the Pakistanis or NYT would miss that sort of opportunity to drum up anti-US sentiment. Has anyone seen any photos to back up other aspects of the story?
IHMO the jury is still out till we hears something definitive from our side.
FYI: Joint operations are between U.S. branches of service, whereas combined operations are between different countries.
Yes, I'm sure the six children were openly aiding and abetting the terrorists. Good grief, get a grip. Given that culture, I doubt any female victims had any say in the matter, either.
Go away.
Just so you know, I wrote that post before the dead were identified. My sympathy for the children lies mainly with the poor kids being born into and raised by a bunch of midieval tribesmen that aid and abet known terrorists instead of being born into a modern free society.
BTW, you can save your righteous indignancy for someone else who might care what you think.
I have no doubt that you care little about anything not revolving directly around EricT.
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