The CIA’s drone bombing campaign in Pakistan resumed today after a two week pause when guided missiles from either a Predator or Reaper drone killed at least 10 al Qaeda and Taliban linked militants, according to AFP. The pause was the longest since the Obama administration stepped up the bombing campaign in summer 2008.
The strikes came in village of Sheerani Mada Khel in the district of North Waziristan, Pakistan, a stronghold of warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur. A Pakistani security official told AFP that most of the dead were foreigners,” a term often used to describe Arab and Chechen fighters.
Bill Roggio writes that Bahadur is a member of what’s considered the “good Taliban,” in Pakistan, that is, Taliban fighters who don’t wage war against the Pakistani state, but rather cross the border into Afghanistan to attack U.S. troops. Bahadur is known to support Taliban leader Mullah Omar, the Haqqani network as well as al Qaeda.
-- Greg Grant
