UPDATEs at the bottom
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MIRAMSHAH: A US drone attack on Sunday killed at least four militants in Pakistan’s restive northwestern tribal area, security officials said.
The missiles struck a compound in Khushhali Turikhel village of the troubled North Waziristan tribal district on the Afghan border.
“US drones fired six missiles into a militant compound. At least four militants were killed,” a security official told AFP.
Local intelligence officials confirmed the attack and casualties.
from DAWN
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U.S. drone strike kills 3 in NW Pakistan
ISLAMABAD, July 29 (Xinhua) -- At least three people were killed when a U.S. pilotless plane attacked a tribal region in northwestern Pakistan Sunday afternoon, local media reported.
from XINHUA
Editor: Mo Hong'e
2012-07-29 20:00:22
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UPDATE1:
from DAWN, 2 hours ago:
MIRAMSHAH:A US drone attack Sunday killed at least seven militants in North Waziriatan, officials said, days before the country’s intelligence chief visits Washington with the contentious raids likely to be discussed.
Attacks by unmanned American aircraft are deeply unpopular in Pakistan, which says they violate its sovereignty and fan anti-US sentiment, but US officials are said to believe the attacks are too important to give up.
In Sunday’s attack, the second in the month of Ramazan, missiles struck a compound in Khushhali Turikhel village of the troubled North Waziristan tribal district, which lies on the border with Afghanistan.
“US drones fired six missiles into a militant compound. At least seven militants were killed,” a security official told AFP.
“It is not immediately clear if there was an important militant killed in the attack.”The toll might rise as militants search for colleagues buried under the rubble of the compound, the official said, adding that missiles also hit and destroyed two militant vehicles.
Local intelligence officials confirmed the attack and casualties.
Khushhali Turikhel lies around 35 kilometres (20 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan which is considered a stronghold of militants.
Drone strikes are likely to be a major issue when Pakistan’s spymaster, Lieutenant General Zaheer ul-Islam, holds talks in Washington on August 1-3 with his CIA counterpart.
Washington regards Pakistan’s semi-autonomous northwestern tribal belt as the main hub of Taliban and al Qaeda militants plotting attacks on the West and in Afghanistan.
Ten militants were killed on Monday in a similar attack in Shawal area of North Waziristan. In a drone attack at the start of July, six militants were killed and an attack on June 4 killed 15 militants, including senior Al-Qaeda figure Abu Yahya al-Libi.
There has been a dramatic increase in US drone strikes in Pakistan since May, when a Nato summit in Chicago could not strike a deal to end a six-month blockade on convoys transporting supplies to coalition forces in Afghanistan.
On July 3 however, Islamabad agreed to end the blockade after the United States apologised for the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers in botched air strikes last November.
Islam’s trip on Wednesday marks the first Washington visit in a year by the head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence and signals a thaw in relations beset by crisis since US troops killed Osama bin Laden near Islamabad in May 2011.
In protest at US drone attacks, local Taliban and Pakistani warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur have banned vaccinations in North and South Waziristan, putting 240,000 children in the region at risk.
They have condemned the immunisation campaign as a cover for espionage. In May, a Pakistani doctor was jailed for 33 years after helping the CIA find bin Laden using a hepatitis vaccination programme as a cover.
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UPDATE2:
6 Uzbeks killed in North Waziristan drone strike
Six Uzbek fighters were among those reported killed in the latest
US drone strike in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North
Waziristan.
The remotely piloted Predators or the more advanced Reapers fired at least six missiles at a compound and a vehicle in the village of Khushhali Turikhel near Mir Ali, according to reports from Pakistan. The Uzbek fighters were "visiting a spring for leisure" when they were attacked, a Pakistani intelligence official told The Express Tribune, which put the number of Uzbeks killed at six. AFP reported that seven "militants" were killed.
No senior al Qaeda or allied jihadist commanders from foreign terrorist groups are reported to have been killed in the strike.
The Uzbek fighters were likely members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, or the Islamic Jihad Group, an IMU splinter. Both groups are closely tied to al Qaeda and the Taliban, and are known to operate in the Mir Ali area.
The remotely piloted Predators or the more advanced Reapers fired at least six missiles at a compound and a vehicle in the village of Khushhali Turikhel near Mir Ali, according to reports from Pakistan. The Uzbek fighters were "visiting a spring for leisure" when they were attacked, a Pakistani intelligence official told The Express Tribune, which put the number of Uzbeks killed at six. AFP reported that seven "militants" were killed.
No senior al Qaeda or allied jihadist commanders from foreign terrorist groups are reported to have been killed in the strike.
The Uzbek fighters were likely members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, or the Islamic Jihad Group, an IMU splinter. Both groups are closely tied to al Qaeda and the Taliban, and are known to operate in the Mir Ali area.
Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2012/07/six_uzbeks_killed_in.php#ixzz223YiaAoh
Washington Time
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