The Drone, the CIA and a Botched Attempt to Kill Bin Laden's Deputy

The Drone, the CIA and a Botched Attempt to Kill Bin Laden's Deputy

The Drone, the CIA and a Botched Attempt to Kill Bin Laden's DeputyIn the hunt for al-Qaeda, a missile attack on a mountain village killed women and children.

The attack was precise, the intelligence was flawed, and the strained relation between Pakistan and the US has been pushed to breaking point
by Jason Burke and Imtiaz Gul in Islamabad

The missiles were deadly accurate. In the pitch dark of a night in Pakistan's sparsely populated North West Frontier Province, they not only located the three targeted houses on the outskirts of the village of Damadola Burkanday but squarely struck their hujra, the large rooms traditionally used by Pashtun tribesmen to accommodate guests.

Yesterday some of the results of the strike were very clear: three ruined houses, mud-brick rubble scattered across the steeply terraced fields, the bodies of livestock lying where thrown by the airblast, a row of newly dug graves in the village cemetery and torn green and red embroidered blankets flapping in the chilly wind. Four children were among the 18 villagers who died in the brutally sudden attack on their homes.

''WHY DO US NOT DISINTEGRATE INTO 52 PIECES'' Angry protesters chant anti-U.S. slogans during a protest in Peshawar, Pakistan on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2006. Islamic groups staged nationwide protests Sunday against a purported CIA airstrike that Pakistan says killed innocent civilians instead of the apparent target, top al-Qaida lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahri. The sign on left reads 'U.S.S.R disintegrated into 15 pieces. Why do U.S. not disintegrate into 52 pieces.'

They have every right to be angry!