Malmandi Darpa Khel (N. Waziristan) Drone Attack – May 2012
Date: 23/05/2026
Location: North Waziristan Agency, FATA, Pakistan
Perpetrators: United States
Victims: 5 Killed, 2 Injured
What Happened?
23 May 2012: A U.S. drone strike destroyed a house in the Malmandi Serai Darpa Khel area of Miranshah. This attack reportedly started at around 0235 hours. Chinese news agency Xinhua reported 5 U.S. drones loitering in the sector. Nothing has ever been learned about the victims and if whether any civilians were affected, as Taliban cordoned off the area.
It is possible that an alleged senior Al Qaeda commander Abdul Kader Mahmood Muhammad El Syed was killed along with his son Saleh in this drone strike. An Al-Qaeda statement in February 2013 stated that El Syed was killed in a U.S. drone strike sometime in Spring 2012. El Syed was an Egyptian national wanted by Italian authorities for Al Qaeda’s activities in Italy.
This U.S. drone strike came after an 18-day lapse. The last strike in North Waziristan’s Shawal Tehsil had killed 10 civilians in an alleged attack on a ‘suspected militant training camp’.
OMM-PK313