Chenagai airstrike
| Chenagai airstrike | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Insurgency in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the war on terror | |
| Operational scope | Neutralizing militant targets in the Chenagai village of the Bajaur Agency |
| Location | |
| Commanded by | Unknown (Pakistan or United States) |
| Target | Deputy al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri |
| Date | 30 October 2006 |
| Executed by | Disputed/Unknown: Pakistan Air Force or United States Air Force |
| Outcome | Unknown |
| Casualties | 70–82 (per local sources) killed Unknown injured |
scope, type.Using more than one of the following parameters in Template:Infobox military operation:
target, objective.The Chenagai airstrike took place on October 30, 2006, around 5:00 am local time in the Chenagai village of Bajaur Agency (today Bajaur District) of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA, today Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province, KPK) on Pakistan's western border with Afghanistan. Both Pakistan and the United States 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, al-Qaeda'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, 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.