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Drone Strike Kills at Least 4 in Pakistan Drone Strike Is Said to Kill a Top Pakistani Taliban Figure
(about 3 hours later)
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — At least four people were killed and four others injured in a drone attack on a house near the Pakistani-Afghan border early Wednesday, residents in the region said. LONDON — A suspected American drone strike killed the deputy leader of the Pakistani Taliban early Wednesday, two Pakistani officials said, dealing a potentially serious blow to an insurgency that has killed thousands of people in Pakistan and encouraged Islamist attacks in the United States.
Wednesday’s strike came just six days after President Obama unveiled his new drone policy, curtailing their use to limit civilian casualties and moving oversight of the program from the C.I.A. to the Pentagon — although the C.I.A. is expected to maintain control of strikes in Pakistan. U.S. officials do not comment on specific attacks, but the C.I.A. has carried out hundreds of drone strikes in Pakistan that have killed thousands of people. The deputy leader, Wali ur-Rehman, was among five people killed when missiles fired from a drone struck a house just outside Miram Shah, the main town in the tribal district of North Waziristan, two Pakistani security officials said.
Residents reached by phone in Miram Shah, North Waziristan, said the drone attack happened around 3 a.m., hitting a house in nearby Chashma Pull and killing four people. A Chashma resident said that shortly after the strikes, three pickup trucks carrying fighters were seen rushing to the site of the strike to retrieve bodies and look for wounded militants. A Taliban commander, speaking in a telephone interview on the condition of anonymity, confirmed that Mr. Rehman, who had a $5 million United States bounty on his head, had been killed.
An official in Peshawar responsible for security in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas said it appeared that at least three people had died in the attack. The official Taliban spokesman, however, said he had no information on the strike. “I am not denying nor confirming it,” the spokesman, Ehsanullah Ehsan, said in a telephone interview from an undisclosed location.
“This is an initial report,” said the official, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. “We don’t know the identities of the dead and wounded but so far it emerges that all were tribal people. We have not heard of any foreigner having been killed or wounded so far.” The identities of those killed in drone strikes are notoriously difficult to confirm because the remote tribal areas are inaccessible to foreign and most local journalists. But the number of different sources — official and militant — that confirmed the attack on Mr. Rehman suggested he had indeed been killed.
A local administration official in North Waziristan said the targeted compound was used by militants for meetings and dining purposes. “Half of the compound has been destroyed,” the official said, adding that the death toll may increase. The strike came just days after President Obama announced significant changes to American drone operations abroad, and a week before Nawaz Sharif, whose party won the recent election in Pakistan, is expected to be sworn in as prime minister.
The authorities in the North Waziristan region, a stronghold for militant forces, often have to rely on local tribal contacts for information. Although the C.I.A.-controlled drone campaign in Pakistan is shrouded in secrecy, analysts said it was unlikely American drones would have struck at such a time unless it had a prominent target in its sights.
Wednesday’s strike, coming just days before the newly elected government in Pakistan takes over, suggests that Washington is not likely to completely halt such attacks, which it sees as an effective tactic in fighting Al Qaeda in the region along the Pakistani-Afghan border. Residents reached by phone in Miram Shah said the drone attack occurred around 3 a.m. and hit a house in Chashma Pull village. A local resident said that shortly after the strikes, three pickup trucks carrying fighters rushed to the site to retrieve bodies and look for wounded militants.
The incoming prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, has said he plans to engage the United States in “serious” negotiations to put an end to drone strikes, which Pakistan says violate its sovereignty. A tribal administration official in North Waziristan said that militants had used the targeted compound for meetings and dining. “Half of the compound has been destroyed,” he said, adding that the death toll may increase.
From a mountainous district of South Waziristan, Mr. Rehman was responsible for dozens of suicide attacks on Pakistani civilians and guerrilla assaults on Pakistani army troops. He also organized attacks on NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan, which helped bring him onto America’s list of most-wanted.
In 2010 the United States government listed Mr. Rehman as a “specially designated global terrorist” and offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest.
Over the past year, Mr. Rehman developed serious differences with the Taliban leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, who is also wanted by the United States. Militant sources said the two men disagreed over the future direction of the Taliban insurgency.
Also killed in Wednesday’s strike were two Uzbek militants, officials said.
The C.I.A. has carried out about 360 drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004, but the rate of attack has dropped sharply this year amid fierce scrutiny of the program in the United States.
Counting Wednesday’s action, there have been 13 drone attacks in 2013, according to the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, a London-based group that monitors the strikes.
Drone strikes were a prominent issue in the recent election, and the incoming prime minister, Mr. Sharif, says he plans to engage the United States in “serious” negotiations to put an end to the attacks, which Pakistan says violate its sovereignty.
A spokesman for the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed “serious concerns” over the drone strike.A spokesman for the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed “serious concerns” over the drone strike.
“The Government of Pakistan has consistently maintained that the drone strikes are counter-productive, entail loss of innocent civilian lives, have human rights and humanitarian implications and violate the principles of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and international law,” the spokesman said in a statement Wednesday afternoon. “The government of Pakistan has consistently maintained that the drone strikes are counterproductive, entail loss of innocent civilian lives, have human rights and humanitarian implications and violate the principles of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and international law,” the spokesman said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.
The drone strike also came the same day that members of the provincial assembly of the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province were scheduled to take their oaths of office. A majority of the incoming provincial assembly is deeply opposed to the use of drone strikes by United States, with opposition to the strikes and military offensives by the Pakistani Army in the tribal regions a cornerstone of election campaigns of several political and religious parties in the run-up to the May 11 general election. The drone strike also came the same day that members of the provincial assembly of the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province were scheduled to take their oaths of office.
The political party of Imran Khan, the former star cricket player turned politician, will lead a coalition government in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. In October last year, Mr. Khan led a rally of thousands of supporters, party workers and a contingent of American peace activists to the edges of the tribal region in protest of drone strikes. That provincial administration will be led by Imran Khan, the former star cricket player turned politician, who led a large anti-drone rally to the edge of the tribal belt last year.

Salman Masood contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.

Declan Walsh reported from London, Ismail Khan reported from Peshawar, Pakistan. Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud and Salman Masood contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan.