US airstrike, Pakistani security actions leave 25 dead (3rd Roundup)

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.