By ISMAIL KHAN and DECLAN WALSH
PESHAWAR,
Pakistan — Ending a five-month hiatus, the Central Intelligence Agency
resumed its drone campaign in Pakistan on Wednesday with a missile
strike that killed at least four people at a compound in the tribal
district of North Waziristan, Pakistani officials said.
The
drone fired several missiles at a truck parked outside a house four
miles north of Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, said a
Pakistani security official in Peshawar.
It
was uncertain initially who had been killed in the strike. But a
majority of the victims, by several accounts, were Uzbek fighters from
the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan — a Taliban-allied jihadi group that
only hours earlier had boasted of its role in Sunday’s audacious assault
on the Karachi airport, which led to at least 36 deaths.
Speaking
from the tribal belt, another Pakistani official reported five deaths —
three Uzbeks and two members of the Haqqani network, a Taliban-allied
faction that regularly attacks American and Afghan forces in Afghanistan
and that until last month held the American soldier Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl
hostage. Both Pakistani officials spoke on the condition of anonymity
to discuss intelligence details publicly. A C.I.A. official would not
comment on the strike in Pakistan.
A
resident of Miram Shah said by telephone that the force of Wednesday’s
attack rattled windows in the town. It was the first known C.I.A. drone
strike inside Pakistan since Dec. 25, 2013, when missiles struck another
compound near Miram Shah and killed at least three people.
Although
the C.I.A. has never explained the subsequent pause, many Pakistani
analysts believe it was to allow Pakistan’s government a chance to
negotiate with the Taliban. However, those talks have fallen apart amid a
new wave of militant attacks and government airstrikes.
Another
factor may also be involved. On Sunday, James N. Mattis, the former
leader of the United States Central Command, said on CNN that concern
about Sergeant Bergdahl’s safety had weighed on any potential military
strikes against the Haqqanis. That concern is now gone, he said, adding,
“There’s also a freedom to operate against them that perhaps we didn’t
fully enjoy.”
Within
Pakistan, the country’s military and civilian leaders, spurred by
public outrage over the Karachi assault, are contemplating a new
offensive against the Taliban.
In
the past week, Pakistan’s military has conducted airstrikes against
suspected militant targets in North Waziristan, particularly in
neighborhoods dominated by ethnic Uighur and Uzbek militants.
China,
which is a significant economic and strategic ally for Pakistan, has
pressured the government to crack down on the Uighurs, who are linked to
an Islamist insurgency in Xinjiang region in western China.
The
Uzbek militants, who fled to Pakistan after 2001, have become an
integral part of the Taliban insurgency that, despite efforts to talk
peace with the government in recent months, has continued to carry out
bomb attacks across the country.
Ismail Khan reported from
Peshawar, and Declan Walsh from London. Ihsanullah Tipu Mehsud
contributed reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan, and Eric Schmitt from
Washington.
