A large number of CIA drone strikes in Pakistan’s tribal areas haven’t hit who they thought they were targeting, as evidenced by the large number of Tehreek-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leaders who have been “confirmed” assassinated a number of times and are still alive, but they usually hit what they were aiming it.
Except for today, as Pakistani intelligence officials confirm that the US drone strike in North Waziristan actually failed to kill the “four people in a vehicle” that seem to be their usual targets in recent days.
Reportedly the first Hellfire missile fired at the vehicle missed, and the passengers dove out before a second missile managed to destroy the vehicle. Initial confirmations were that people were killed but they later conceded that no bodies had been found at the site and the targets, whoever they may have been, had gotten away.
Since President Obama took office the number of US drone strikes has dramatically escalated, and well over 1,000 people have been killed. The vast, vast majority of these people were never identified and are believed to be random tribesmen, and of the few dozen “confirmed” assassinations of militants a number of them have reemerged, sometimes repeatedly, so whoever was killed in those attacks also remains a mystery.