The war on terror is happening in earnest now. With tears for the fallen..
US 'missile strike' kills eight in Pakistan
4 hours ago
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — A suspected US drone attack killed up to eight people in a remote Pakistani tribal area near the Afghan border on Tuesday, the second such strike in a few days, security officials said.
No high-value targets were killed in the strike in the village of Sara Khwara in South Waziristan, about 25 kilometres (16 miles) west of the area's main town Wana and just a few kilometres from the Afghan border.
A known Taliban and Al-Qaeda hub, Wana is a stronghold of Maulvi Nazir, a key Taliban commander accused by the United States of recruiting and sending fighters to Afghanistan to attack US and NATO forces.
"It was a drone strike on a compound, where militants used to stay before crossing the border or after coming back from Afghanistan. Eight militants were killed," said one Pakistani security official on condition of anonymity.
Another security official said two missiles were fired, killing seven to eight militants.
"Foreigners and local Taliban were assembled there. It was a compound -- like a house in the mountains," added the official. Foreigners is a word routinely used in Pakistan to refer to suspected Al-Qaeda militants.
But one official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said two women and two children were among those killed in the strike, executed on intelligence that militants were heading to Afghanistan intending to carry out an attack.
It was the second suspected US strike in three days. Security officials said six militants were killed in another strike in South Waziristan on Saturday.
The United States has adopted a new strategy to defeat Islamist extremists, putting Pakistan at the heart of the fight against Al-Qaeda and sending an extra 21,000 US troops to neighbouring Afghanistan to battle the Taliban.
Pakistan publicly opposes drone attacks, saying they violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among the populace. Since August 2008, more than 40 such strikes have killed more than 390 people.
The US military does not, as a rule, confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy drones in the region.
Pakistan has called for military equipment and drones in order to better attack the extremists themselves, and thus save the government from the furious anti-US backlash that officials say weakens their rule.
Under heavy US pressure, Pakistan is pressing a ground and air assault against Taliban militants in three districts of North West Frontier Province, which unlike the tribal areas comes under direct government control.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment