Conffederate
Confederate

January 29, 2008

Targeting Zawahiri?

Interesting...

Twelve suspected militants died in a missile strike on a home in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, officials said.

The attack occurred after midnight in Khushali Torikhel, a village in North Waziristan, a tribal region bordering Afghanistan, an intelligence and a government official in the region said.

There was no immediate official confirmation of the attack. The two officials who spoke did so on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make media comments.

Pakistan has been trying to tamp down on militancy in its border regions, where elements of Al Qaeda and the Taliban are believed to operate.

Technically, the Pakistani military has the capability to launch guided missiles from both ground platforms (given the terrain and effective range, unlikely) and from aircraft (more likely), but considering the proximity to the Afghan border and the fact that the strike happened at nighttime, I would hardly be surprised to find out that a U.S. Predator armed with Hellfire missiles made the strike. If that was the case, I would not be surprised to see that leaked out over coming days.

Of course, if this was a U.S. strike, the next logical question is to ask if they were after any high value targets (HVTs) in particular.

In January of 2006, a Predator fired missiles into a compound on the Pakistan border in hopes of taking out al Qaeda's Number 2, Ayman al-Zawahiri, Osama bin Laden's chief deputy. The 2006 strike missed Zawahiri.

Could we have been more fortunate this time?

Posted by Confederate Yankee at January 29, 2008 09:54 AM
Comments

We could only hope as much! Looks I just may get to come to DC again come March. Hopefully, we can meet up!

Posted by: Snooper at January 29, 2008 09:58 AM

I woulnd't be surprised if it was core leadership. I have been writing about the split in the taliban and how the split will end up very bad for the al Qaeda core leadership because the anti-al qaeda Taliban tribes will be ratting them out to get an advantage over the pro-al Qaeda taliban tribes. I got an article in at American Thinker showing that even Jane's has now come out and said (based on high level taliban sources) that the Taliban has split into pro/anti al qaeda factions. Not to mention, the Taliban has also split into Paki/Afghan factions.
Getting very bad to be core al Qaeda leadership these days. Just don't know who you can trust now...

Posted by: Ray Robison at January 30, 2008 04:28 PM

Hey snooper, didnt know you were a Confederate Yankee fan as well.

Posted by: Ray Robison at January 30, 2008 04:28 PM