Feel good story of the day…
(LWJ)– US Predators launched attacks in Pakistan’s tribal agency of Khyber for the second day straight. Twenty-six “terrorists” were reported killed in three separate strikes in an area of Khyber known to host the Taliban and al Qaeda.
Unmanned Predator strike aircraft, or the more deadly Reapers, fired missiles at two compounds in the villages of Shandana and Speen Drang in the Tirah Valley, and a safe house in the village Nakai in Malik Deen Khel. Fifteen “terrorists” were killed in the Nakai strike, and eleven more were killed in Shandana and Speen Drang, according to reports in SAMAA and Dawn.
The targets of the strikes are unclear. According to Geo News, a commander of the Lashkar-e-Islam, a Taliban-like group based in Khyber, was among those killed. No senior al Qaeda or Taliban leaders have been reported killed in the strike.
Today’s three strikes follows another strike in Khyber yesterday, which also hit a target in the Tirah Valley. Seven Taliban fighters from Swat and South Waziristan were reported killed in yesterday’s strike.
The strikes in Khyber signal a possible shift in the Predator campaign. Prior to the four strikes in Khyber over the past two days, there has been only one other attack in the tribal agency since the US began its air campaign in 2004. On May 15, 2010, Predators fired at truckloads of jihadists in the Tirah Valley, killing 15 fighters.