Pakistani officials say that a US drone strike against the North Waziristan Agency destroyed a vehicle and a house, killing seven “suspected militants.” Details of the attack are still emerging, and it is unclear if there were any wounded.
But while the officials confirmed the attacks, and termed the house a “suspected hideout” as they so often do, officials also conceded that they had no idea the identities of any of the victims of the attack, and their “suspicion” seems centered entirely around the fact that they got hit with US missiles.
Which is largely in keeping with the reality of the US drone strikes. While well over a thousand people have been killed in the drone strikes just since President Obama took office, fewer than a few dozen were ever conclusively named. Among those, many turned out to be false positives, as a number of top militants have been “assassinated” several times while still remaining at large.
Of the rest, the vast majority were anonymous tribesmen, mostly targeted on the basis of anonymous tips from local rivals. Though US officials maintain that the drone program has been accurate, the killings have sparked anger across Pakistan.