Pakistan Strikes Al Qaeda's Winter Hideout
January 16, 2007 12:17 PM
Habibullah Khan and Alexis Debat Report:
Gretchen Peters contributed to this report.
Five compounds of al Qaeda's winter hideout, where foreigners and local militants train to make bombs, were the target of an air strike this morning in South Waziristan, Pakistan, according to a senior Pakistani official.
Around 30 were killed, including many foreign fighters from Uzbekistan and Chechnya. There is also suspicion that some Europeans might be among the dead. So far, officials there do not expect to find any high-value targets, such as Osama bin Laden or his top deputy Ayman al Zawahri, amongst the dead.
"We had confirmed intelligence of 25 to 30 personnel, including a few foreign terrorists and their local facilitators," said the spokesman for the Pakistan Army, Major General Shaukat Sultan. "As a result of the strike, three out of five compounds have been destroyed, and two could not be hit."
• Pakistan Releases Releases Surveillance Video of Bombed Terror Camp
Major General Sultan added that some terrorists might have escaped from the compounds that were missed in the strike.
While the Pakistan Army has claimed credit for the strike, local residents reported having heard a drone circling the area, leading to suspicion that this was actually a strike by the U.S. The intelligence was developed jointly and over several months by Pakistan and the U.S., according to a Pakistani official.
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From: Brumar89 1/17/2007 4:44:48 PM |
