By AFP,
Miranshah, Pakistan : A missile strike by a suspected US spy drone late Saturday killed four people in a Pakistani tribal area seen as a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants near the Afghan border.
The incident in the lawless district of North Waziristan was the latest in a string of attacks on Pakistani soil that have raised tensions between Islamabad and Washington. “Two missiles struck a compound just outside Miranshah. Four people were killed, but their identities are not known,” a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
The targeted compound was the residence of Taliban militant Omar Daraz, the official said.
There was no immediate confirmation of the strike from the Pakistani military or from the US-led coalition in Afghanistan.
A similar suspected US missile strike on a house in the same district on Thursday killed nine people including six Arab militants, according to security officials.
Two weeks ago around 20 Al-Qaeda-linked militants, mostly foreign nationals, were killed in another suspected US missile strike in Mohammad Khel village in North Waziristan, Pakistani security officials said.
Missile strikes targeting militants in Pakistan in recent weeks have been blamed on US-led coalition forces or CIA drones based in Afghanistan. Pakistan does not have missile-equipped drones.
The United States has stepped up attacks on militants in Pakistani territory since a new civilian government came to power in Islamabad in March, and the incidents have become an issue in the US presidential election.
Relations have also been strained by a raid by US special operations forces into Pakistan on September 3 which killed several Pakistanis. Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has vowed zero tolerance against violations of his country’s sovereignty amid the strikes, which have stoked anti-US sentiment in Pakistan.
US and Afghan officials say Pakistan’s tribal areas are a known haunt of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who fled into the rugged terrain after the fall of the Taliban regime in late 2001.
Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, are widely believed to be hiding in the mountainous region.
Earlier on Saturday tribesmen in northwest Pakistan buried their dead after a suicide attack killed at least 40 at a mass meeting called to tackle Taliban militancy.
More than 2,000 tribesmen had gathered on open ground in the town of Ghaljo in Orakzai district Friday to discuss the creation of a lashkar (tribal force) to fight the Taliban rebels when the blast occurred.
The bombing was a setback to the Pakistan government’s attempts to enlist fiercely independent ethnic Pashtun tribesmen in support of its military operations against Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists in the region.
Taliban militants in the areas close to Afghanistan have killed dozens of tribal elders who they accuse of backing the government using roadside bombs, executions and suicide bombings.
The bodies of four pro-government tribal elders were founded beheaded on Saturday in the Bajaur tribal region where the army is fighting Al-Qaeda and extremist militants.