At least six Al Qaeda commanders were killed during the recent US drone attack in Dattakhel area of North Waziristan tribal region, the al Qaeda leadership has confirmed, according to a report published in a local newspaper.
The head of the al Qaeda victory committee, Sanafi al-Nasr, who is based in Syria, confirmed via a social networking site that six of his members belonging to the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group were killed in the July 10 drone attack.
The dead also included Al Qaeda’s local commander Mustafa Abu Yazid who had accepted responsibility for former premier Benazir Bhutto’s assassination.
On July 19, a drone strike in Dattakhel tehsil of North Waziristan tribal region killed eight suspected terrorists.
Moreover, 18 suspected militants were killed on July 16 during a US drone attack in the North Waziristan tribal region’s Dattakhel area.
On July 10, a drone strike in North Waziristan’s Dattakhel area had reportedly killed six militants.
Meanwhile, six suspected militants were killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan’s Miranshah tehsil on June 18 soon after the commencement of the Zarb-e-Azb military operation against foreign and local militants in the tribal region.
Earlier on June 12, separate US aerial drones had fired missiles at suspected militant hideouts. The two successive drone strikes had killed at least 16 in North Waziristan.
These figures cannot be independently verified since the access of the media is restricted.