US Drone Strike Kills 13 in South Waziristan

Attack Targeted Vehicle, House

A US drone has attacked a house and a vehicle in the Mandao District of Pakistan’s South Waziristan Agency, killing at least 13 people and wounding three others. The slain have not been identified but were termed “suspected militants” by Pakistani officials commenting on the situation.

The attack is the eighth US drone strike in 2012, and the deadliest since mid-February, when a pair of US drone strikes killed 21 people in neighboring North Waziristan Agency.

The latest attack came just hours after the release of a new al-Qaeda video confirming the death of a militant leader, Badr Mansoor, in a previous drone strike. This was the first confirmed kill of an actual militant among all the strikes in 2012, though others have been speculated to have been killed.

The video also condemned the Pakistani government for backing the US drone strike program. Publicly, Pakistan’s government condemns the US strikes, which are enormously unpopular domestically, but privately has cooperated in the strikes.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.