US drones strike in North Waziristan, kill 6 'militants'
By BILL ROGGIO, June 18, 2014
As the Pakistani military is launching airstrikes against foreign terrorist groups such as the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and the Turkistan Islamic Party as part of an operation that began on Sunday, the US entered the fray and killed six "militants" in a drone strike in the tribal agency. The strike is the third in the past week.
The unmanned Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired several missiles at a compound and a vehicle in the village of Darga Mandi in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan,
Dawn reported. The village is just outside of Miramshah, the home of the Haqqani Network, a Taliban subgroup that is closely tied to al Qaeda.
The exact target of the strike and the identities of those killed has not been disclosed. Jihadist groups operating in the area have not commented on the strike.
The airstrike is the second in Darga Mandi in the past week. On June 11, the US killed four "Uzbeks," likely from the al Qaeda-allied Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, and two members of the Movement of the Taliban in Punjab in an attack on the village.
In addition to the two strike in the past week, the US has launched five other strikes in Darga Mandi since the drone program in Pakistan began in 2005. In one strike, on Sept. 5, 2013,
the US killed Mullah Sangeen Zadran, the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani Network leader and Taliban shadow governor of Afghanistan's Paktika province who held Bowe Bergdahl, the US soldier who was recently
exchanged for five top Taliban leaders held at Guantanamo Bay.
One day later, on June 12, the US killed 10 Taliban and Haqqani Network leaders in a strike in the nearby village of Danda Darpa Khel. The strike is said to have killed Haji Gul, a senior Haqqani Network commander, and two leading Afghan Taliban commanders known as Mufti Sofian and Commander Abu Bakar.
Today's strike also coincides with Operation Zarb-e-Azb, the Pakistani military offensive in North Waziristan. The military claims it has killed more than 180 "terrorists" and "foreigners," and zero civilians during a series of airstrikes in North Waziristan.
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http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2014/06/us_drones_strike_in_5.php##ixzz350ZntIDb