Deaths in Pakistan ‘missile attack’

Pakistani intelligence officials say that a suspected US drone attack has killed at least 10 people in the country’s northwest.

The raid targeted North Waziristan, a tribal region near the Afghan border where many Taliban-affiliated networks are based.

Pakistani intelligence officials said two missiles hit the house of Awal Gul, a local tribesman, in Inzarkas, a village 50km west of Miran Shah.

Residents spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

The suspect in the recent failed car bombing in New York City’s Times Square has claimed he visited in a Taliban fighters camp in the Waziristan region.

Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said Washington expects more co-operation from Pakistan in fighting terrorism and warned of “severe consequences” if an attack on US soil were traced back to the South Asian country.

She made the remarks in an interview with CBS television’s “60 Minutes” that were to be broadcast later on Sunday.

The US has stepped up its drone attacks on suspected Pakistan Taliban sites after a Jordanian suicide bomber killed seven CIA employees at a US base across the border in the eastern Afghan province of Khost last December.

Pakistan publicly rejects CIA’s drone attacks, saying they are a violation of its sovereignty and fuel anti-US feelings, which complicates its efforts against Taliban fighters.

In another development, Pakistani army helicopters attacked suspected fighters’ hideouts on Sunday morning in the Shana Garhi area of the Orakzai tribal region, killing at least eight of them, Jahanzeb Khan, a local official, said.

Pakistan security forces are carrying out an operation against fighters who escaped the military offensive in South Waziristan. Some have taken refuge in Orakzai, which lies next to North Waziristan, and other neighbouring tribal areas.

Central / S.Asia Featured Latest News Sections War of Terror by Khattab — May 10, 2010 at 12:23 am | 0 comments