Islamabad - A suspected US missile strike Monday killed six
people, including three foreigners, in Pakistan's north-western
tribal region, officials said.
The predawn attack targeted a house in a village near the Azam
Warsak area of the South Waziristan district bordering Afghanistan.
'Six people were killed and three others were wounded when
multiple missiles hit the building at around 3:30 am,' a security
official said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitive nature of
his job.
According to the official, three of the dead were believed to be
foreign militants while the rest were local youths.
Some media reports said the stricken compound was a religious
seminary run by a tribesman identified as Salat Khan. The building
was also frequently used by Taliban fighters.
While it was not clear whether the missiles were fired from ground
or aerial platforms, residents said the buzzing sound of US-operated
pilotless Predator aircraft was heard before the explosions.
'The US spy planes have been circling over the area soon after
midnight,' Gul Hassan, a local resident, said.
The attack came as Pakistan's Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani
was set to meet President George W Bush in Washington. The
discussions are expected to focus on the US-led war on terror in
Afghanistan and Islamabad's role as a frontline ally.
Pakistan's tribal areas are believed to be sanctuaries for Taliban
and al-Qaeda fighters staging cross-border attacks on international
forces and Afghan government troops.
Islamabad is under growing pressure from the United States and
other coalition partners to prevent the infiltration, which has
reportedly increased since the new Pakistani government launched
peace talks with militants earlier this year.
The United States has so far refrained from conducting operations
against militants inside the tribal region, but launched several
aerial attacks, some of which Pakistan's military owned up to, in
order to contain public reprisals against the violation of the
country's sovereignty.
Meanwhile, the acting commander of the United States Central
Command, Martin E Dempsey, met Monday with Pakistan's military top
brass in the garrison town of Rawalpindi to discuss the security
situation in the region, especially the border areas.
In the meeting, the chairman of Pakistan's Joint Chiefs of Staff
Committee Tariq Majid opposed the engagement of targets by coalition
and Afghan forces in the tribal region.
'Our sovereignty and territorial integrity must be respected, any
violation in this regard could be detrimental to bilateral
relations,' a statement issued by the military's public relations
directorate cited General Majid as saying.
The meeting had been scheduled before the latest strikes took
place.
Also on Monday, one person was killed and around a dozen policemen
were wounded when suspected Islamic militants struck a police vehicle
with a remote-controlled bomb in the north-western town of Kohat,
police said.
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