A US drone strike on a vehicle in Danday Darpa Khel village near Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal agency, is reported to have killed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commander Hakimullah Mehsud [4] Nov. 1. At least six others were also killed in the attack, including two militant commanders, identified as Tariq Mehsud and Abdullah. Locals are still trying to retrieve the dead and injured from the wreckage, and it is not yet confirmed that Hakimullah Mehsud was in the vehicle. Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan called the attack an attempt to sabotage the government's plan to hold talks with the TTP. It was the second drone attack since Prime Minster Nawaz Sharif's visit to the US last week, when he demanded President Barack Obama to stop the attacks. (The News [5], Pakistan, Nov. 1; Reuters [6], Oct. 24)
A translator at a Capitol Hill hearing on the US drone program was moved nearly to tears Oct. 29 during the testimony of Pakistani primary school teacher Rafiq Rehman. Rehman and his family—whose story was revealed [7] to the world by Amnesty International [8]—traveled to Washington from North Waziristan to relate how his mother was killed in a drone strike and his two children injured. The family’s congressional appearance was sponsored in by the Brave New Foundation [9], which has just released the documentary film Unmanned: America’s Drone War [10], detailing the Rehman family's losses. (Raw Story [11], Oct. 30)
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