Curious Incident At Warizistan Madrassa

There's been a most curious incident in Pakistan. Locals claim a UAV eliminated a madrassa founded by a buddy of OBL in Warizistan. The Pentagon denies any involvment although they point out that it might be a CIA drone, and Pakistan is looking into it.

Pakistani villagers said a missile strike hit houses near a madrasa founded by an old friend of Osama bin Laden's on Friday, killing at least five people.

They told Reuters a drone aircraft carried out the attack. The United States has carried out such operations in the past using drones, which Pakistan does not possess in its armory.

The Pentagon issued a swift denial the U.S. military had conducted a strike, though spokesman Bryan Whitman said he could not speak for U.S. intelligence agencies that also operate the pilotless aircraft.

A Pakistani military spokesman said he had heard there had been an explosion in a house but there had been no action by Pakistani forces.

The sprawling religious school or madrasa near Miranshah, the main town in the Waziristan tribal region, was founded by veteran mujahideen commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose ties to bin Laden go back to the 1980s jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

Exit questions: How did locals know it was a UAV. Maybe it was a terrorist own goal?

This part (one of many) makes no sense though:

"A drone was flying very low and fired the missile. It destroyed three houses," a Dandi Darpakheil village resident told Reuters on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivities over U.S. operations in Pakistani territory.

This is a local resident, and they're worried about the sensitivity of US operations in Pakistan? Locals aren't concerned about geopolitics other than to rally and riot against such incidents. Did the report conflate accounts from multiple individuals? Or, are the villagers concerned about reprisals against them for what happened at the madrassa to Taliban/al Qaeda sympathizers?

Then, there's the fact that he's claiming that one missile destroyed three houses? That's quite the missile.

I suspect something did happen, but this report has many a problem.

UPDATE:
Debka (take with grain of salt) has more details that seem to track with the general story that there was some form of airstrike on the madrassa compound. (HT: NJDhockeyfan at LGF.)