Drone strike kills key Taliban commander

By Hafiz Wazir

WANA, Pakistan | Thu Jan 3, 2013 6:20am EST

(Reuters) - A U.S. drone strike killed a key Taliban commander, his deputy and eight others in northwest Pakistan, intelligence sources and tribal leaders said Thursday, deaths that could substantially alter the power balance in the Taliban heartland of Waziristan.

Maulvi Nazir Wazir, also known as Mullah Nazir, was killed on Wednesday night when missiles struck a mud house in South Waziristan, near the Afghan border, intelligence sources and residents said.

He had survived at least one previous drone attack and was wounded weeks earlier in a bomb attack believed to have been launched by Taliban rivals.

His key commanders and his deputy, Ratta Khan, were also killed in the attack at Angoor Adda, near the provincial capital of Wana, sources said.

Nazir had expelled foreign militants from his area, favored attacking American forces in Afghanistan and had signed non-aggression pacts with the Pakistani military in 2007 in 2009. That put him at odds with some other Pakistan Taliban commanders, but earned him a reputation as a "good" Taliban among some in the Pakistan military.

Nazir's successor was announced in front of a crowd of thousands at his funeral, a witness said. People will be watching closely to see if fellow Wazir tribesman Salahud Din Ayubi continues with Nazir's policies.

The military has a large base in Wana, where Nazir and his men were based. Nazir presided over an uneasy peace between the militants and the army there, but the truce was endangered by the military's alliance with the United States and drone strikes, a military officer said recently.

"The (drone) program is making things very difficult for us. Nazir is the sole remaining major militant leader willing to be an ally," he said.

"If he decides to side with (Pakistan Taliban leader) Hakimullah, thousands of fighters will come to the frontlines against the Pakistani military. It is in our interest to keep him neutral, if not on our side, because then we can direct our resources against anti-state militants with much greater efficiency."

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Rumor Mill: "SECRET" GRU/KREMLIN reports says Hillary Clinton injured and SEAL killed in plane crash in Iran.

Compiled from various sources: 

A new Foreign Military Intelligence (GRU) report circulating in the Kremlin today is saying that United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was injured, and a top US Navy Seal Commander killed when their C-12 Huron military passenger and transport aircraft crashed landed nearly 3 weeks ago in the Iranian city of Ahvaz near the Iraqi border.

Iranian intelligence agents quoted in this GRU report confirm that the C-12 Huron aircraft is still in their possession in Ahvaz, but will only admit that the plane was “forced to land because of technical problems”.

The US Navy Seal member reported killed in this bizarre incident, this report says, was indentified asCommander Job W. Price who as a leader of this highly specialized American Special Forces unit protects high-ranking diplomats traveling in Middle Eastern and Asian combat zones.

Curiously, US media reports on Commander Price’s death say it being investigated as a possible suicide as he died from what the American Defense Department describes as “a non-combat related injury”.

Equally as curious, US media reports state that Secretary Clinton will return to work next week after her having suffered what they describe as a “nasty bout with stomach flu” and a “concussion” which have kept her missing from public view the past three weeks.

This GRU report, however, states that US military flight logs recorded by Russian air and space forces confirm that Commander Price, and other members of US Navy SealTeam 4, left their base in Urozgan Province, Afghanistan on a flight to US Naval Support Activity Bahrain where they met up with Secretary Clinton and all of them transferred to the C-12 Huron that began a flight path to Baghdad, Iraq.

Within minutes of leaving Bahrain airspace, this report says, the C-12 Huron carrying Secretary Clinton and herUS Navy Seal protectors, “without notice,” deviated from their assigned flight path heading, instead, directly towards Iran’s Ahwaz International Airport where, coincidentally, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had previously landed on an “unscheduled” visit.

Important to note, GRU analysts say in this report, was that when the C-12 Huron entered into Iranian airspace neither American nor Iran air force units responded clearly indicating that this secret mission was sanctioned.

Upon the C-12 Huron landing at Ahwaz, however, this report says it encountered “extreme turbulence” causing it to leave the runway where its main landing gear then collapsed causing it to crash.

Within seconds of the C-12 Huron crashing, this report continues, Iranian emergency and security personal responded freeing the victims, including Secretary Clinton who was reportedly unconscious and “bleeding profusely.”

After emergency aid was given, GRU agents stationed in Iran state that another US military flight was dispatched from Bahrain to Ahwaz which evacuated all of those wounded and killed in the crash including Secretary Clinton.

Critical to note, Russian medical experts further state in this report, is that the timeline from when Secretary Clinton was first severely injured, to when the news of her true condition was first released, suggest a “planned effort” on the part of the Obama regime to manage the true facts surrounding her health, and here eventual death, or recovery.

To if Secretary Clinton is able to fully recover, the GRU says, is “within the realm of possibility” as modern medical advances treating TBI’s has advanced significantly, and no better care for such head injuries exists in the world outside of the US military medical establishment who have treated hundreds of thousands of similar cases over that nations over decade of war.

What remains unknown, and which this report does not speculate upon, is to why the American people are still not allowed to know why Secretary Clinton was sent to Iran to begin with, and why the true state of her health is still being kept secret?

Meanwhile and possibly related:

US President Barack Obama enacted a law on Friday targeting Iran's alleged influence in Latin America. This comes as Washington already wages a “covert war” against Iran, according to researcher Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich.

The act also calls on the Department of Homeland Security to bolster surveillance at US borders with Canada and Mexico to “prevent operatives from Iran, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, its Quds Force, Hezbollah or any other terrorist organization from entering the United States.”

The Islamic Republic has been expanding its cooperation with Latin America in recent years and has described it as the one of its major foreign policy strategies.

The anti-Iran law comes amid growing tensions surrounding Iran and its nuclear program. The US and its allies suspect Iran of developing nuclear weapon, while it insists on the peaceful nature of its nuclear program.

On Saturday Tehran started a six-day naval drill aimed to show "the armed forces' military capabilities" in confronting enemy threats. The drill, dubbed Velayat 91, is being conducted in the key Strait of Hormuz.

Iran reassured its neighbors of its peaceful intentions but warned any enemies that it takes defending its vital interests very seriously.