Chenagai airstrike
Encyclopedia
The Chenagai airstrike took place on October 30, 2006, around 5:00 am. local time. Missiles were fired at a madrassa in Chenagai village in Bajaur
region of Pakistan
. An eyewitness has stated that the madrassa was filled with local students who had resumed studies after the Eid ul-Fitr
holiday. 82 people died in the attack. Initially it was reported that the Pakistani military carried out the attack but later it became apparent that it was carried out by US drones.
, shouting slogans in support of Osama bin Laden
, the leader of al-Qaeda
, and Mullah
Mohammed Omar
, the Taliban's leader. In January 2006, US forces in Afghanistan
carried out an airstrike in Bajaur's Damadola village
which US officials said was aimed at al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri
. Al-Zawahiri was not present during the attack. The Pakistan-Afghan border has been a haven for fighters for decades.
, the main town in Bajaur region. The leader of the madrassa, cleric Maulana Liaqat Ullah Hussain, was believed to be sheltering al-Qaeda militants and was among the dead. Locals claimed that the missiles were fired by US drones. About 15 minutes later, they said, three helicopter gunships of the Pakistan Army arrived and fired a few rockets that slammed into nearby hills.
, the attack was launched by a MQ-1 Predator with Ayman al-Zawahiri
as its intended target. However, the report's author has since been removed from ABC's site due to questions concerning the reliability of his reporting.
In Afghanistan, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Matt Hackathorn denied the U.S. was involved in the strike. "It was completely done by the Pakistani military," he told the Associated Press
. A spokesman for the Pakistani Foreign Office also denied involvement of any external influence or pressure, saying of the airstrike, "It is something that we have done and we have been doing for peace and security in our own region".
However, later Pakistani officials have admitted that the strike was actually conducted by the U.S. and that they have also requested the U.S. not to violate their sovereignty again. “We thought it would be less damaging if we said we did it rather than the US,” said a key aide to President Pervez Musharraf
. Local people claimed the victims included boys as young as 12 but Pakistani officials insisted they had been shown satellite images of people training and had checked the identity cards of all those killed, and that all were adults.
groups have condemned the action saying that there should have been a warning or the government should have arrested and brought to trial any suspected militants. Faqir Mohammed
, a local leader with suspected ties to al-Qaeda, stated "The government attacked and killed our innocent people on orders from America". Sirajul Haq, the senior Minister and Provincial Chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami
party, resigned from the provincial cabinet in protest against the strikes. Sahibzada Haroonur Rashid, MNA (Member of National Assembly) from Bajaur Agency, also resigned from the National Assembly in protest.
, 85 miles north-west of Islamabad
.http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,,1942468,00.html It has already called the deadliest attack by the militants on the army since it began operations against pro-Taliban and al-Qaeda forces.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6127262.stm Though no one has claimed responsibility as yet, the attack has been linked to the Bajaur militants.http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=4099
Bajaur
Bajaur or Bajur or Bajour is an Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Smallest of the agencies in FATA, it has a hilly terrain. According to the 1998 census, the population was 595,227 but other more recent estimates it has grown to 757,000...
region of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
. An eyewitness has stated that the madrassa was filled with local students who had resumed studies after the Eid ul-Fitr
Eid ul-Fitr
Eid ul-Fitr, Eid al-Fitr, Id-ul-Fitr, or Id al-Fitr , often abbreviated to Eid, is a Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting . Eid is an Arabic word meaning "festivity," while Fiṭr means "breaking the fast"...
holiday. 82 people died in the attack. Initially it was reported that the Pakistani military carried out the attack but later it became apparent that it was carried out by US drones.
Background
The attack came two days after about 3,000 fighters held a rally near KharKhar (Pakistan)
Khar is a town in the Bajaur Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. It is the headquarters of the Agency administration of Bajaur. It lies on the border with Afghanistan...
, shouting slogans in support of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...
, the leader of al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
, and Mullah
Mullah
Mullah is generally used to refer to a Muslim man, educated in Islamic theology and sacred law. The title, given to some Islamic clergy, is derived from the Arabic word مَوْلَى mawlā , meaning "vicar", "master" and "guardian"...
Mohammed Omar
Mohammed Omar
Mullah Mohammed Omar , often simply called Mullah Omar, is the leader of the Taliban movement that operates in Afghanistan. He was Afghanistan's de facto head of state from 1996 to late 2001, under the official title "Head of the Supreme Council"...
, the Taliban's leader. In January 2006, US forces in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
carried out an airstrike in Bajaur's Damadola village
Damadola airstrike
On 13 January 2006 the Central Intelligence Agency fired missiles into the Pakistani village of Damadola in the Bajaur tribal area, about seven kilometres from the Afghan border, killing at least 18 people. Originally the Bajaur tribal area government claimed that at least four foreign members...
which US officials said was aimed at al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian physician, Islamic theologian and current leader of al-Qaeda. He was previously the second and last "emir" of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zumar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zumar to life...
. Al-Zawahiri was not present during the attack. The Pakistan-Afghan border has been a haven for fighters for decades.
The airstrike
The attack took place in Chenagai village near the town of KharKhar (Pakistan)
Khar is a town in the Bajaur Agency of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. It is the headquarters of the Agency administration of Bajaur. It lies on the border with Afghanistan...
, the main town in Bajaur region. The leader of the madrassa, cleric Maulana Liaqat Ullah Hussain, was believed to be sheltering al-Qaeda militants and was among the dead. Locals claimed that the missiles were fired by US drones. About 15 minutes later, they said, three helicopter gunships of the Pakistan Army arrived and fired a few rockets that slammed into nearby hills.
U.S. involvement
According to the American Broadcasting CompanyAmerican Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
, the attack was launched by a MQ-1 Predator with Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman al-Zawahiri
Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian physician, Islamic theologian and current leader of al-Qaeda. He was previously the second and last "emir" of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zumar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zumar to life...
as its intended target. However, the report's author has since been removed from ABC's site due to questions concerning the reliability of his reporting.
In Afghanistan, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Matt Hackathorn denied the U.S. was involved in the strike. "It was completely done by the Pakistani military," he told the Associated Press
Associated Press
The Associated Press is an American news agency. The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists...
. A spokesman for the Pakistani Foreign Office also denied involvement of any external influence or pressure, saying of the airstrike, "It is something that we have done and we have been doing for peace and security in our own region".
However, later Pakistani officials have admitted that the strike was actually conducted by the U.S. and that they have also requested the U.S. not to violate their sovereignty again. “We thought it would be less damaging if we said we did it rather than the US,” said a key aide to President Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf
Pervez Musharraf , is a retired four-star general who served as the 13th Chief of Army Staff and tenth President of Pakistan as well as tenth Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee. Musharraf headed and led an administrative military government from October 1999 till August 2007. He ruled...
. Local people claimed the victims included boys as young as 12 but Pakistani officials insisted they had been shown satellite images of people training and had checked the identity cards of all those killed, and that all were adults.
Reaction
There were angry reactions in response to the strike. Many MuslimMuslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
groups have condemned the action saying that there should have been a warning or the government should have arrested and brought to trial any suspected militants. Faqir Mohammed
Faqir Mohammed
Faqir Mohammed is a member of the Mohmand tribe and a deputy leader of the Pakistani Taliban umbrella group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan. He was born in Chopatra, in Bajaur Agency, Pakistan. He was reported as killed on March 5, 2010 during a helicopter gunship attack on militants by the Pakistani...
, a local leader with suspected ties to al-Qaeda, stated "The government attacked and killed our innocent people on orders from America". Sirajul Haq, the senior Minister and Provincial Chief of the Jamaat-e-Islami
Jamaat-e-Islami
This article is about Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan. For other organizations of similar name see Jamaat-e-Islami The Jamaat-e-Islami , is a Pro-Muslim political party in Pakistan...
party, resigned from the provincial cabinet in protest against the strikes. Sahibzada Haroonur Rashid, MNA (Member of National Assembly) from Bajaur Agency, also resigned from the National Assembly in protest.
Retaliation
Following attacks against the madrasa in the Bajaur tribal agency, on November 8, 2006, a suicide bomber killed 42 Pakistani soldiers and injured 20 others in DargaiDargai
Dargai is an administrative area of the Malakand District in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, located on the main highway from Peshawar to Swat, Dir and Chitral...
, 85 miles north-west of Islamabad
Islamabad
Islamabad is the capital of Pakistan and the tenth largest city in the country. Located within the Islamabad Capital Territory , the population of the city has grown from 100,000 in 1951 to 1.7 million in 2011...
.http://www.guardian.co.uk/pakistan/Story/0,,1942468,00.html It has already called the deadliest attack by the militants on the army since it began operations against pro-Taliban and al-Qaeda forces.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6127262.stm Though no one has claimed responsibility as yet, the attack has been linked to the Bajaur militants.http://www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=4099
See also
- Damadola airstrikeDamadola airstrikeOn 13 January 2006 the Central Intelligence Agency fired missiles into the Pakistani village of Damadola in the Bajaur tribal area, about seven kilometres from the Afghan border, killing at least 18 people. Originally the Bajaur tribal area government claimed that at least four foreign members...
of Jan 13, 2006 - Drone attacks in PakistanDrone attacks in PakistanThe United States government, led by the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division, has made a series of attacks on targets in northwest Pakistan since 2004 using drones . These attacks are part of the US' War on Terrorism campaign, seeking to defeat Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants...
- Gora Prai airstrikeGora Prai airstrikeThe Gora Prai airstrike was an airstrike by the United States that resulted in the deaths of 11 paramilitary troops of the Pakistan Army Frontier Corps and 8 Taliban fighters in Pakistan's tribal areas...