seruriermarshal
01-06-2010, 07:07 AM
18 mins ago
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) – US missiles flattened an extremist fort used as a training centre in Pakistan's tribal belt on Wednesday, killing four militants in the fourth such strike in a week, Pakistani officials said.
The attack targeted the mud-brick fort in Sanzali village, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, and was the fourth suspected US missile attack in the tribal district in a week.
"One US drone fired two missiles. It was a Taliban training centre. We have reports that four militants were killed and five wounded," a Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Two intelligence officials and a local administration official confirmed the attack and the same death toll.
The area is a stronghold of Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who fought with the Taliban when US-led troops invaded Afghanistan and is reputed to control up to 2,000 fighters whom he sends across the border but who do not attack in Pakistan.
"It was a huge, fort-like mud-house. They were using it as a training centre and the training centre belonged to Hafiz Gul Bahadur," a Pakistani intelligence official told AFP, again on condition of anonymity.
Suspected US drones have increasingly targeted North Waziristan, a bastion of Al-Qaeda fighters, the Taliban and the Haqqani network that attacks the 113,000 US and NATO troops fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Washington is putting increased pressure on Pakistan to tackle militants who use its soil to launch attacks in Afghanistan and American officials have said that the highly secretive drone programme has eliminated some top fighters.
North Waziristan borders the Afghan province of Khost, where a suicide bomber killed seven CIA agents on a US base last week in the deadliest attack on the US spy agency since 1983.
Washington has put Pakistan at the heart of a new strategy for winning the eight-year war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, saying success depends on dismantling militant sanctuaries along the porous border.
Around nine US missile strikes in North Waziristan have killed 53 people in the past month, although the identities of those killed are hard to verify as the deaths are deep in Taliban-controlled territory.
The attacks on Pakistani territory fuel anti-American sentiment in the nuclear-armed Muslim nation and the government publicly condemns the strikes. Analysts say, however, that the strikes have Islamabad's tacit approval.
More than 70 US drone missile strikes have killed at least 665 people in Pakistan since August 2008. The United States does not confirm drone attacks, but its military is the only force that deploys drones in the region.
North Waziristan neighbours South Waziristan, where Pakistan has been focusing its most ambitious military offensive yet against homegrown Taliban militants. It sent about 30,000 troops into the region on October 17.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100106/wl_afp/pakist****unrestmissile;_ylt=AnjmDu39WoVlF5.leqoZSwUBxg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTJ2NzByNjJoBGFzc2V0A2FmcC8yMDEwMDEwNi9wYWtpc3RhbnVzdW5yZXN0bWlzc2lsZQRwb3MDMTAEc2VjA3luX3BhZ2luYXRlX3N1bW1hcnlfbGlzdARzbGsDdXNkcm9uZWF0dGFj
MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) – US missiles flattened an extremist fort used as a training centre in Pakistan's tribal belt on Wednesday, killing four militants in the fourth such strike in a week, Pakistani officials said.
The attack targeted the mud-brick fort in Sanzali village, about 30 kilometres (19 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, and was the fourth suspected US missile attack in the tribal district in a week.
"One US drone fired two missiles. It was a Taliban training centre. We have reports that four militants were killed and five wounded," a Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Two intelligence officials and a local administration official confirmed the attack and the same death toll.
The area is a stronghold of Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who fought with the Taliban when US-led troops invaded Afghanistan and is reputed to control up to 2,000 fighters whom he sends across the border but who do not attack in Pakistan.
"It was a huge, fort-like mud-house. They were using it as a training centre and the training centre belonged to Hafiz Gul Bahadur," a Pakistani intelligence official told AFP, again on condition of anonymity.
Suspected US drones have increasingly targeted North Waziristan, a bastion of Al-Qaeda fighters, the Taliban and the Haqqani network that attacks the 113,000 US and NATO troops fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Washington is putting increased pressure on Pakistan to tackle militants who use its soil to launch attacks in Afghanistan and American officials have said that the highly secretive drone programme has eliminated some top fighters.
North Waziristan borders the Afghan province of Khost, where a suicide bomber killed seven CIA agents on a US base last week in the deadliest attack on the US spy agency since 1983.
Washington has put Pakistan at the heart of a new strategy for winning the eight-year war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, saying success depends on dismantling militant sanctuaries along the porous border.
Around nine US missile strikes in North Waziristan have killed 53 people in the past month, although the identities of those killed are hard to verify as the deaths are deep in Taliban-controlled territory.
The attacks on Pakistani territory fuel anti-American sentiment in the nuclear-armed Muslim nation and the government publicly condemns the strikes. Analysts say, however, that the strikes have Islamabad's tacit approval.
More than 70 US drone missile strikes have killed at least 665 people in Pakistan since August 2008. The United States does not confirm drone attacks, but its military is the only force that deploys drones in the region.
North Waziristan neighbours South Waziristan, where Pakistan has been focusing its most ambitious military offensive yet against homegrown Taliban militants. It sent about 30,000 troops into the region on October 17.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100106/wl_afp/pakist****unrestmissile;_ylt=AnjmDu39WoVlF5.leqoZSwUBxg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTJ2NzByNjJoBGFzc2V0A2FmcC8yMDEwMDEwNi9wYWtpc3RhbnVzdW5yZXN0bWlzc2lsZQRwb3MDMTAEc2VjA3luX3BhZ2luYXRlX3N1bW1hcnlfbGlzdARzbGsDdXNkcm9uZWF0dGFj