A US drone today fired a pair of missiles against the Tappi district of Pakistan’s North Waziristan Agency. destroying a car and killing four people. Local security officials termed the four suspects, but had no information on his identity.
The strike is the seventh such strike since the May 2 helicopter raid into Abbottabad, which killed Osama bin Laden. The attacks have come in spite of the increasingly vociferous demands by the Pakistani government to end all such strikes.
It also caps off a week that included a cross-border US helicopter attack which wounded two Pakistani border troops, as well as a public press conference in which Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Admiral Michael Mullen declared that the US is free to attack “with impunity” and that the Pakistani military is “humiliated” by its inability to stop it.
The Obama Administration has continued to insist that the attacks will continue, despite Pakistan’s complaints. The timing of the attacks killing random, nameless tribesmen seem designed to embarrass Pakistan’s military, and seem they will inevitably produce a more robust reaction.
Local sources reported that villagers attempted to assist survivors (if any), but were unable because the drone continued to circle.