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Chenagai airstrike

2006 airstrike in Bajaur Agency, Pakistan

Field	Value
name	Chenagai airstrike
partof	the Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the war on terror
type	airstrike
location	Chenagai village, Bajaur, KPK, Pakistan
commanded_by	Unknown (Pakistan or United States)
objective	Target militant hideouts in Northwest Pakistan
target	Flag of Jihad.svg Deputy al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri
date	30 October 2006
executed_by	Disputed/Unknown:
or

outcome	Unknown
fatalities	70–82 (per local sources)
injuries	Unknown
scope	Neutralizing militant targets in the Chenagai village of the Bajaur Agency

| time-begin = | time-end = or

Security and terrorism commentator Alexis Debat reported the target of the strike was Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second-in-command. Though Zawahiri was not among the dead and was killed in a July 2022 airstrike in Kabul, two to five senior al-Qaeda commanders were present, during or shortly before the attack including Matiur Rehman Ali Muhammad, mastermind of the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot, and Faqir Mohammad, a close friend of Zawahiri and deputy leader of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

No official count of casualties was undertaken, local sources claim between 70 and 82 were killed in the attack.

Strike

The attack took place in Chenagai village near the town of Khar, the headquarters of Bajaur Agency. The leader of the madrassa, cleric Maulana Liaqat Ullah Hussain, was suspected to be sheltering al-Qaeda militants and was among the dead.

Responsibility

According to ABC News, 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.

Pakistani officials have said that the strike was conducted by the U.S. and that they have also requested the U.S. not to violate their sovereignty again. In an article immediately after the strike, Bill Roggio of the Long War Journal, concluded the strike was indeed carried out by U.S. as Pakistan does not possess capabilities to conduct precision night strikes.

Reaction

There were angry reactions in response to the strike. Many Muslim groups have condemned the action. Siraj-ul-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.

Retaliation

On November 8, 2006, a suicide bomber killed 42 Pakistani soldiers and injured 20 others in Dargai, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The bombing was named the deadliest attack by the militants on the Pakistani armed forces since it began operations against pro-Taliban and al-Qaeda forces. Though no claims of responsibility were issued, the attack has been linked to the militants in Bajaur.

References

"The emerging age of drone wars". CBS News.
"The day 69 children died".
Debat, Alexis. (2006-10-30). "Zawahiri Was Target in U.S. Attack on Religious School in Pakistan".
(30 October 2006). "A Closer Look at the Chingai Airstrike in Bajaur, Pakistan". Long war journal.
(2006-10-30). "NWFP senior minister resigns". [[Dawn (newspaper).
(2006-10-30). "MNA resigns in protest against air strike". [[Dawn (newspaper).
Walsh, Declan. (8 November 2006). "Suicide blast kills 42 Pakistani soldiers". [[The Guardian]].
(8 November 2006). "Bomber kills 42 Pakistani troops". [[BBC News]].

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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