Damadola airstrike
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On January 13, 2006 U.S. aircraft fired missiles into the Pakistani village of Damadola in the Bajaur tribal area, about 7 km (4.5 miles) from the Afghan border, killing at least 18 people. The attack targeted Ayman al-Zawahiri, purportedly second-in-command of al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden, who was thought to be in the village. Pakistani officials later said that al-Zawahiri was not there and that the U.S. had acted on faulty intelligence. [1]
Airstrike
The attack was carried out by four CIA-operated unmanned Predator drones which launched four Hellfire missiles at a mud-walled compound, destroying three houses several hundred yards apart. [2] Another report said that as many as 10 missiles were fired. [3]
The official number of dead is 13, including five women and eight children, but other reports indicate that as many as 25 people were killed. [4] There is confusion over the actual number killed, since a report claims that 13 of the dead were buried immediately, without customary funeral arrangements [5].
Unnamed U.S. intelligence officials assert that the attack was conducted based on intelligence that al-Zawahiri was invited to a dinner at the compound that was targeted. Two unnamed Pakistani intelligence officials claim that al-Zawahiri had been invited to the village to mark the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha but passed it up and sent some aides instead. Pakistani officials from the Bajaur region later confirmed that up to eleven "extremists" were killed in the attack. [6]
Unnamed Pakistani authorities claimed that Al Qaeda bomb maker and chemical weapons expert Midhat Mursi was killed in the strike. The United States had posted a $5 million reward for Mursi's capture. He is described by U.S. authorities as the man who supervised al-Qaeda's Derunta training camp in Afghanistan. According to Pakistani officials, Khalid Habib, al-Qaeda's operations chief for Pakistan and Afghanistan, and Abdul Rehman al Magrabi, a senior operations commander for al-Qaeda, were also killed. [7]
Responses
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying it protested to U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker over the "loss of innocent civilian lives."
The Pakistani government angrily denounced the attack. Pakistan's Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed called the attack "highly condemnable" and said the government wanted "to assure the people we will not allow such incidents to reoccur."
Tension remained high throughout tribal areas. Anger was expressed across Pakistan against the United States for illegally launching a military action inside an allied country - and an attack that killed innocent civilians.
Thousands of tribesmen staged protests and a mob set fire to the office of Associated Development Construction, a non-governmental organisation funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, in a sign of increasing frustration over a recent series of suspected U.S. attacks along Pakistan's frontier with Afghanistan.
On Sunday January 15, tens of thousands of Pakistanis took part in anti-American protests across the country. The largest demonstration was held in the city of Karachi where protesters chanted "Death to America" and "Stop bombing innocent people". Hundreds of riot police were deployed to control the crowds. A leader in the coalition of Islamic groups that organised the nationwide protests demanded that General Musharraf step down. [8]
Also on January 15, U.S. politicians expressed regret over the deaths caused by the attack but said the airstrike was justified.
"It's terrible when innocent people are killed; we regret that," said U.S. Senator John McCain. "We apologize, but I can't tell you that we wouldn't do the same thing again. We have to do what we think is necessary to take out al Qaeda, particularly the top operatives. This guy has been more visible than Osama bin Laden lately."
Senator Evan Bayh blamed the Pakistani government for being unable to control the frontier, rhetorically asking "Now, it's a regrettable situation, but what else are we supposed to do? It's like the Wild, Wild West out there. The Pakistani border (with Afghanistan) is a real problem." [9]
President Bush has provided written legal authority to the CIA to hunt down and kill people designated as enemy combatant "high-value targets" without seeking further approval each time the agency is about to stage an operation. The CIA believes it possesses all the necessary approvals within its counterterror center in Langley, Virginia to fire missiles anywhere in the world, including Pakistan, when a high-value al-Qaida target is spotted. The agency doesn't require further clearance from the White House, local governments, or the CIA director to kill an al-Qaida operative. The purpose of this expanded authority is to expedite rapid action in case an assassination opportunity is time-sensitive. [10] [11]
The United States government issued no formal comment about the Damadola attack.