location: Shawal
notes: On January 15, a US drone strike hit a building in Shawal tehsil (N.Waziristan, FATA) killing between 5 and 7 people. The strike succeeded in its target of Ahmed Farooq, a US citizen and senior al Qaeda leader. Amongst the 5 killed were two civilian hostages held by Al-Qaeda - an Italian and an American. Washington Post later claimed there was a surveillance lapse in that the CIA had reportedly detected a western hostage held by Al-Qaeda a year before, but did not monitor the hostages movements using drone surveillance.
target_text: location: Shawal, fatalities: 5