Suspected US missile kills 5 in Pakistan
MIR ALI, Pakistan — A suspected U.S missile struck a Pakistani militant stronghold near the Afghan border late Monday, killing five people, officials and a resident said.
The missile hit a compound in Machi Khel village in the North Waziristan tribal area — a region home to Taliban and Taliban-affiliated militant groups, some of which are suspected in attacks on Western troops stationed in Afghanistan.
The U.S. has fired scores of missiles from unmanned drones into Pakistan’s lawless tribal regions over the past year, a campaign that it says has killed several top al-Qaida and Taliban commanders.
An August missile strike killed Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in neighboring South Waziristan tribal region.
The identities of the people killed Monday were not immediately clear, said three Pakistani officials, two of whom work for the intelligence service. The officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.
Local resident Hikmat Ullah said Monday’s strike caused “a big blast.”
“We saw three planes flying in the sky before the missile strike,” he said.
In the past, Pakistan has publicly opposed the missile strikes, saying they violate its sovereignty and spur anti-American sentiment. But many observers suspect the two countries have a deal allowing the missile attacks, and Islamabad appeared pleased that Mehsud, whom it considered a grave threat, was eliminated.
Pakistan has waged its own offensives against militants in the country’s northwest.
A military statement Monday said security forces killed 10 more suspected insurgents in the latest operation in Khyber tribal region. Authorities say the week-long operation has so far killed over 130 alleged militants — a toll that has not been independently verified.
Meanwhile, a roadside bomb killed two Pakistani soldiers and wounded two others in South Waziristan, said two other intelligence officials and an army official. The officials requested anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to media.
Associated Press writers Riaz Khan in Peshawar, Ishtiaq Mahsud in Dera Ismail Khan and Asif Shahzad in Islamabad contributed to this report.
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