SAC/SOG has been very active " on the ground " inside Pakistan targeting al-Qaeda operatives for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle ( UAV ) Predator strikes and along with USSOCOM elements they have been training Pakistani paramilitary troops and regular Army troops , they have also done HVT target missions alongside Pakistani special forces . Before leaving office , President George W. Bush authorized SAC 's successful killing of eight senior al-Qaeda operatives via targeted air strikes . Among those killed were the mastermind of a 2006 plot to detonate explosives aboard planes flying across the Atlantic Rashid Rauf and the man thought to have planned the Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing on September 20 , 2008 that killed 53 people . The CIA Director authorized the continuation of these operations and on January 23 , SAC/SOG performed killings of 20 individuals in northwestern Pakistan that were terrorists . Some experts assess that the CIA Director – at that time Leon Panetta – has been more aggressive in conducting paramilitary operations in Pakistan than his predecessor . A Pakistani security official stated that other strikes killed at least 10 insurgents , including five foreign nationals and possibly " a high-value target " such as a senior al-Qaeda or Taliban official . On February 14 , the CIA drone killed 27 taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in a missile strike in south Waziristan , a militant stronghold near the Afghan border where al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri were believed to be hiding
Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing
Islamabad Marriott Hotel bombing
Special Activities Center