HVT Killed in Yesterday’s Hellfire Strike?

MSNBC is reporting that an Arab high-value target was hit in yesterday’s Hellfire missile strike in Pakistan

MSNBC is reporting that an Arab high-value target was hit in yesterday’s Hellfire missile strike in Pakistan:

Senior U.S. and Pakistani officials tell NBC News that Wednesday’s Predator attack on a village in northwest Pakistan was not insignificant, that a “high-value target … an Arab” was among those killed. U.S. officials believe the unnamed target was planning attacks outside Pakistan, “so we nailed him,” in the words of one.

By all accounts, on Wednesday evening, two male guesthouses in the village of Damodola were struck by Hellfire missiles fired from Predator drones. The drones are normally operated by the CIA.  Inside the guesthouses were local fighters along with several “foreigners,” including the Arab fighter, according to the U.S. officials and locals. 

Although the number of missiles fired remains uncertain, recent attacks have involved multiple volleys from multiple Predators. Predators now carry up to six Hellfires.

Initial reports had the dead at 12, but now they are as high as 30.

UPDATE: In other news of note, this will be a first if true, Manned Nato aircraft striking the Pakistan side of the Durand line per Pakistan Tribune:

Our Wana correspondent adds: Jet fighters flying from across the Pak-Afghan border violated Pakistan’s airspace in South Waziristan Agency Wednesday and dropped bombs in the area near the Durand Line.
Tribal sources said the jet fighters from the US-led Nato forces operating in Afghanistan intruded into Pakistan’s territory at Sra Khawra area near the border town of Angoor Adda and flew about three kilometres deep into South Waziristan Agency.
The planes reportedly dropped some bombs inside Pakistani territory but there were no details of losses. The same jet fighters also bombed targets on the Afghan side of the border. The government officials could not be reached to confirm the violation of Pakistan’s airspace by foreign planes.

Worthy of note however is how the Durand Line has been stretched in a few areas into Afghanistan the past few years. The craft could have been bombing the internationally recognized line, rather than the Wazir view of where the line is.

Update:
A bit more from The News (jang) where some of the casualties are named:

“All the bodies were split into pieces and scattered in the building,” he spoke to this correspondent by telephone after visiting the destroyed house. Tribal sources told The News that close friends of the Arab fighter were invited to the function and that was the reason that death toll was high as the guests were spending the night in the hujra when blitzed by Drones.

Maulvi Omar, militants’ spokesman belonging to Bajaur’s troubled Mohmand subdivision, called this correspondent and said 11 people were killed in the air strike. Among the dead, he said, five militants belonged to Bajaur.

Five others, he said, hailed from neighbouring Mohmand Agency, including Shah Wali, brother of militants’ central commander Abdul Wali code-named Omar Khalid while another Shahid belonged to Shabqadar in Charsadda district.

He said thousands of tribe people came from all parts of the agency and attended funeral prayers of victims of the air strikes. Maulvi Omar said no women or children were killed or injured in the attack.

Also note here that TTP Taliban Leader Nawab Khan was killed by his friends in Parachinar, the location of a lot of sectarian fighting the past few years.

The Touchy-Feely Obama

Obama’s raising hell about Bush’s speech in Israel about trying to appease the terrorists. Bush just
told it like it is although he didn’t mention any names, Obama was the first to counter his words. This is like someone who although suspected but not directly accused jumps up saying “No I didn’t, it wasn’t me!”

If Obama thinks he can go head to head with the leaders of North Korea Iran and Venezuela and come out on top he’s living in a fantasy world. He doesn’t have a clue on how they conduct negotiations and they wrote the book on lying and disinformation. Anything they say or sign concerning a treaty is not worth the ink used in their signatures.

Although people like Obama are so naive to believe they have accomplished a genuine feat only to find out all they did was waste their time and effort. To add to this, they will still have faith that the other side will change and honor their commitments — which has never and will never happen unless threatened by force of arms. And people like Obama will not press the issue and instead will allow it to evaporate like the dew on the morning grass.