Reports indicate that an unmanned U.S. Predator aircraft attacked an al Qaeda safehouse in Pakistan outside of the tribal areas for the first time. At least five people including “foreigners” — a term often used by local Pakistanis to describe non-domestic Al Qaeda members — were killed in the strike.

Dawn said the attack occurred in the Hindi Khel region of Bannu, while Reuters claimed the strike was in Jani Khel. The Hellfire missiles launched from the Predator is said to have hit a compound owned by a “tribesman” named Sakhi Mohammad. The Taliban often host al Qaeda meeting and shelter members in their fortress-like compounds in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Bannu, a Frontier Region, is outside of Pakistan’s tribal areas. Bannu borders the Taliban-controlled North and South Waziristan tribal areas to the east. According to US intelligence officials and reports from the region, Bannu is effectively under Taliban control.

As Bill Roggio notes, this appears to be the furthest the U.S. has struck within Pakistani territory and, if the reports are true, is the first recorded strike outside the tribal areas.

Via Hot Air.