Islamabad - Four Islamic militants were killed Wednesday in
a missile strike by a suspected pilotless US aircraft, while 17
Taliban and four civilians died in actions by local security forces
in north-west Pakistan, officials and media reports said.
One of the two missiles fired presumably by a US drone hit a house
in the Jani Khel semi-tribal area of the Bannu district in the
North-West Frontier Province (NWFP).
The pre-dawn airstrike destroyed a mud compound that belonged to a
Taliban militant named Dilber, alias Parpand, a local intelligence
official told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, on the condition of
anonymity.
He said three of the victims were foreigners, a term used to refer
to al-Qaeda-linked fighters of Arab or Central Asian origin. The
fourth dead man was a local fighter identified as Rafiullah.
'The Taliban cordoned off the area after the attack and moved the
bodies of the three foreigners to some undisclosed location,' the
official said.
District police officer Mohammad Alam confirmed the attack but
claimed all those killed were locals.
The United States in recent months has intensified strikes by
pilotless aircraft against militants in Pakistan's tribal region,
from which the Islamist insurgents launch crossborder attacks on
international forces in Afghanistan.
But Wednesday's attack was the first US airstrike outside tribal
regions and in the settled areas.
Pakistan, a key US ally, has been angered by the air raids, which
have also caused many civilian casualties, and warned that such
actions would prove 'counterproductive' in the fight against
terrorism.
NWFP's Chief Minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti condemned the Bannu
attack and warned that the government will be 'forced to review its
diplomatic relations with the US if such actions continued.'
Separately, Pakistani helicopter gunships targeted militants'
hideouts in Bajaur tribal district, leaving at least 12 insurgents
dead and numerous injured, country's Urdu news channel Geo reported
while citing official sources.
According to an army spokesman, Colonel Nadeem Ahmad, five
fighters loyal to a pro-Taliban cleric Maulana Fazlullah died and
several more were injured in 'clearance operation' by the government
forces in NWFP's restive district of Swat.
'There was no loss on our side,' he said.
Swat, formerly a popular tourist destination, has seen intense
fighting since October 2007 when Islamabad dispatched thousands of
troops in Swat to quell the armed campaign waged by Fazlullah to
enforce Taliban rule in the area.
Four civilians, including two women, were killed and eight wounded
Wednesday when two mortar shells in two residential areas of Swat
district, the Geo reported.
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