By DPA,
Islamabad : At least 20 people were killed in a missile attack carried out by a suspected US drone in Pakistan’s tribal region, officials said Monday.
A single missile fired from a pilotless aircraft hit the house of local Taliban commander Mohammad Omar late Sunday in the Shakai area of South Waziristan, they said.
“Commander Omar and 19 more people died in the strike, and three were injured,” a security official said.
The attack demolished Omar’s house and badly damaged two adjacent buildings.
The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said eight among the dead were believed to be “foreigners,” the term used to refer to Al Qaeda-linked fighters with Arab and Central Asian origins.
The area where the strike took place is a stronghold of Baitullah Mehsud, the head of the Pakistani Taliban.
Mehsud, who is in his late 30s, is accused of having ordered dozens of attacks across Pakistan on security personnel and political leaders, including a gun-suicide attack that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto late last year.
His followers are also charged with launching cross-border raids on international troops in Afghanistan.