A commander in al Qaeda's military organization was among 17 Islamist extremists killed during today's strikes in the Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan in Pakistan.Zuhaib al Zahibi, a commander in al Qaeda's Shadow Army, or the Lashkar al Zil, was among seven Arab "foreigners" and nine Taliban fighters killed in one of two airstrikes in the Datta Khel region in North Waziristan, a senior US military intelligence official told The Long War Journal. Two other Taliban fighters were also killed in an earlier, separate strike in the Datta Khel region.
Zahib and the six al Qaeda and nine Haqqani Network fighters were killed after a swarm of five or six unmanned strike aircraft, the Predator or its more lethal successor the Reaper, opened fire on a series of targets. Ten Hellfire missiles were launched by the remotely piloted aircraft against a safe house, a cave, and a vehicle.