The Chenagai airstrike took place on October 30, 2006, around 5:00 am local time in the Chenagai village of

Bajaur Agency Bajaur District (, ), formerly Bajaur Agency, is a Districts of Pakistan, district in the Malakand Division of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, Pakistan. Prior to 2018, Bajaur Agency was the northernmost component of the Federally Administered Tribal ...

(today Bajaur District) of the

Federally Administered Tribal Areas The Federally Administered Tribal Areas, commonly known as FATA, was a semi-autonomous tribal region in north-western Pakistan that existed from 1947 until being merged with the neighbouring province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in 2018 through the ...

(FATA, today Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, KPK) on

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

's western border with

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. Both

and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

were accused of conducting the attack, however the United States officially denied responsibility for the attack. Security and terrorism commentator Alexis Debat reported the target of the strike was

Ayman al-Zawahiri Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri (; 19 June 195131 July 2022) was an Egyptian-born pan-Islamism, pan-Islamist militant and physician who served as the second general emir of al-Qaeda from June 2011 until Killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, his dea ...

al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

'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 or 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 Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary education or higher learning. ...

, cleric Maulana Liaqat Ullah Hussain, was suspected to be sheltering al-Qaeda militants and was among the dead.

Responsibility

According to

ABC News ABC News most commonly refers to: * ABC News (Australia), a national news service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation * ABC News (United States), a news-gathering and broadcasting division of the American Broadcasting Company ABC News may a ...

, the attack was launched by a

MQ-1 Predator The General Atomics MQ-1 Predator (often referred to as the Predator drone) is an American remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) built by General Atomics that was used primarily by the United States Air Force (USAF) and Central Intelligence Agency ...

with

as its intended target. However, the report's author has since been removed from

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

'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 ''FDD's Long War Journal'' (LWJ) is an American news website, also described as a blog, which reports on the War on terror. The site is operated by Public Multimedia Incorporated (PMI), a non-profit media organization established in 2007. ...

, 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 Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

groups have condemned the action.

Siraj-ul-Haq Siraj-ul-Haq (Pashto: سراج الحق; born 5 September 1962) is a Pakistani politician who was elected as the chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, a religious political party in Pakistan which seeks to establish an Islamic legal system. He also served ...

, the senior Minister and Provincial Chief of the

Jamaat-e-Islami Jamaat-e-Islami is an Islamist fundamentalist movement founded in 1941 in British India by the Islamist author and theorist Syed Abul Ala Maududi, who was inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood. It is considered one of the most influential Isla ...

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 A suicide attack (also known by a wide variety of other names, see below) is a deliberate attack in which the perpetrators knowingly sacrifice their own lives as part of the attack. These attacks are a form of murder–suicide that is ofte ...

killed 42 Pakistani soldiers and injured 20 others in Dargai, 85 miles north-west of

Islamabad Islamabad (; , ; ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's tenth-most populous city with a population of over 1.1 million and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital Territory. Bu ...

. 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 Bajaur militants.

References

{{coord missing, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 2006 airstrikes Airstrikes of the insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chenegai October 2006 in Pakistan 2000s in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pakistan–United States military relations Bajaur District School bombings in Pakistan 2006 building bombings Mass murder in 2006 2006 controversies 21st-century mass murder in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Building bombings in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Attacks on schools in 2006 Attacks on madrasas Religious building bombings in Pakistan 2006 in Islam

Strike

Responsibility

Reaction

Retaliation

See also

References