By DPA,
Islamabad : Dozens of cross-border strikes carried out by US forces from Afghanistan into Pakistan’s lawless tribal region have killed 301 civilians and wounded more than 240 others so far in 2008, a media report said Tuesday.
Citing figures compiled by Pakistan’s interior ministry, The News daily said most of those killed in 32 recorded incidents of missile strikes, drone attacks and one ground raid by the US forces were civilians.
According to the report, only eight US strikes hit the targets, killing 36 Al Qaeda and Taliban militants, while the remaining 24 strikes killed 301 civilians and 18 Pakistani security personnel.
Most of the attacks were said to go wrong because of the faulty intelligence provided by US local spies in the tribal belt, a known sanctuary of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters launching cross-border attacks on US-led international forces in Afghanistan.
Concerned over Islamabad’s inability to eliminate the hideouts, the US military has recently intensified strikes on Pakistani soil.
On Sunday, 20 people including a senior Taliban commander died as a suspected US pilotless plane fired a single missile on his house.
But the higher civilian casualties have fuelled public anger in the country amid growing calls to end Pakistan’s cooperation in the US wars against Islamic extremists.
The upper house of the country’s parliament Monday strongly condemned the latest US aerial attack in a unanimous resolution.
Such attacks “constitute a gross violation of our national sovereignty and territory,” said the resolution, which called on the government to convey Pakistan’s strong protest to US and NATO authorities.