Seven Arabs killed in SWA drone attack
Thursday, March 26, 2009
By Mushtaq Yusufzai & Irfan Burki
PESHAWAR/WANA: Seven militants, believed to be Arab nationals, were killed and three others wounded when two vehicles they were travelling in, came under attack from the US drones near Makeen area of South Waziristan Agency (SWA) on Wednesday afternoon.
Sources close to the militants in the area told The News by telephone that the two vehicles had just left the Makeen bazaar to drop the men at their homes in Malik Shahi village of the SWA when they came under attack from the CIA-operated drone.
The Makeen town of SWA is on the border with Razmak sub-division of the troubled North Waziristan Agency.
The area is in control of tribal militants affiliated with Baitullah Mehsud, chief of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).
Pleading anonymity,
a senior militant commander said the drone fired two Hellfire missiles on two vehicles — a double-cabin pick-up and a car — carrying some militants. He said the militants were on way to their destination after shopping in Makeen bazaar along with local tribal militants, including Maulvi Noor Mohammad and Maulvi Mohammad Shafiq.
According to militant sources, the victims were junior-level Arab fighters and there was no prominent figure among them. Eyewitnesses said one of the missiles hit the pick-up truck accurately, blowing it to smithereens.
Most of the people killed in the attack were those sitting in the pick-up truck, said the sources, adding their bodies were mutilated beyond recognition. The car was partially damaged in the missile strikes as it was at some distance from the pick-up.
The drone reportedly fired missiles on both vehicles when they arrived near a mud house of a Mehsud tribesman, Maulvi Noor Mohammad, at Malik Shahi village. Maulvi Noor Mohammad and Maulvi Shafiq were reportedly playing host to the fighters in their village (Malik Shahi).
It could not be ascertained if Maulvi Noor Mohammad and Maulvi Shafiq, who were travelling along with their guests, were killed or injured in the drone attack. Sources said the house of Noor Mohammad was also partially damaged in the attack, but there was no word on the casualties.
Haji Habib Khan, who is running his private business in Makeen bazaar, said two US spy planes were seen hovering over the area since Wednesday morning. Before firing the missiles, Khan said, the spy planes were observed flying at an extremely low altitude above the village.
AFP adds: “Two vehicles were hit in the strike, killing seven foreigners, including Uzbeks and Arabs,” a tribal security official, Haq Nawaz, told AFP. Taliban quickly sealed off the scene to local residents who came to retrieve the bodies from the wreckage of two vehicles, a witness said.
“I saw the bodies myself. Some of them were completely charred and some were mutilated. I saw raw and bloody pieces of human flesh scattered around the site,” one resident told AFP, too frightened to give his name.
Seven Arabs killed in SWA drone attack
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Again, a few months ago similar reports quoting similar sources were pointing out extensive collateral damage and dead civilians - now we have confirmed (or as much as it can be confirmed) militant casualties, foreigners, possibly Al Qaeda, in B Mehsud territory.