US forces – now known to operate out of Pakistan thanks to a big mouthed US Senator – have  successfully targeted a large group of al Qaeda and Taliban militants:

A US missile strike killed 32 people, most of them Uzbek nationals in South Waziristan on Saturday. 

According to sources, US drone planes fired two guided missiles at a house in Malik Khel in Ladha area on a tip off about the presence of high value target in the house. Taliban had cordoned off the area after the blast. 

More than 30 bodies have been recovered from the rubbles. A senior Taliban leader told British news agency deceased are the members of Al Qaeda and majority of them belonged to Uzbekistan. 

More here and here:

Official and local sources said that a missile strike by drones flattened a ‘hujra’ (guest house) of Roshan Mehsud, an associate of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud, in Showngai Naserkhel area. The compound was situated in an isolated area.

…

Local Taliban sources told Dawn by phone that 28 people, including Arabs, Uzbeks and Afghans, were killed. Condition of 10 wounded persons was stated to be serious. A child passing the compound was also injured.

The Taliban earlier claimed that a seminary had been targeted. They said that three weeks ago over 60 foreign militants had assembled in the premises.

According to locals, militants rescued 15 wounded comrades from the debris and took them to a private hospital in Makeen, 15km east of Showngai.

For some reason I am not sure President Obama is going to finish the job in Pakistan. But one thing is clear, President Bush was close to finishing it:

Al-Qaeda is “less capable and effective” than it was a year ago after a series of damaging blows that have killed key leaders in Pakistan’s tribal areas, the new US intelligence chief said.

Nevertheless, retired admiral Dennis Blair, the director of national intelligence, said Al-Qaeda was still planning attacks on the West and is believed to view Europe as a “viable launching point.”

In an annual threat assessment to Congress, Blair also highlighted growing Al-Qaeda threats in Yemen, East Africa and North Africa.

But in an allusion to US missile strikes this year in Pakistan’s tribal areas, he said: “Al-Qaeda lost significant parts of its command structure since 2008 in a succession of blows as damaging to the group as any since the fall of the Taliban in late 2001.

“Because of the pressure we and our allies have put on Al-Qaeda’s core leadership in Pakistan and the continued decline of Al-Qaeda’s most prominent regional affiliate in Iraq, Al-Qaeda today is less capable and effective than it was a year ago,” he said.

Thank You President Bush.

Tags: Afghanistan, al-Qaeda, Bush, Obama, Pakistan, Taliban