By IRNA,
Islamabad : US missiles struck two deadly blows on Friday killing 32 people and injuring a key Taliban commander in a tribal area near the Afghan border, officials said.
The two strikes within a few hours were the latest in series of attacks that have raised tensions between Washington and Islamabad.
In the first attack two missiles hit a pick-up truck and a house west of Mir Ali, a town in the troubled North Waziristan region bordering Afghanistan, killing 20 mainly Arab militants, officials said.
They told IRNA the strike targeted an al Qaeda financial coordinator known as Abu Akasa Al-Iraqi and that there were unconfirmed local reports that he was among the dead.
Two further missiles fired by a US drone at a militant hideout near Wana, the main town in neighbouring South Waziristan, killed 12 suspected rebels soon after, a senior security official said. They included “foreigners”, the official said — using the term by which security services refer to al Qaeda operatives.
Officials said top Taliban commander Mullah Nazir was wounded in the strike.
“Nazir sustained injuries and was rushed to a hospital by Taliban.
“In the two strikes the majority of those killed were al Qaeda operatives and some Taliban local commanders.”
“Some 20 militants were killed in the attack and most were Arabs.
It was a successful strike,” another security official said referring to the first attack.