Missile fired by US drone kills five in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Despite Islamabad's repeated assertion it will not allow violation of its airspace by foreign planes, a barrage of suspected US missile strikes in the country’s northwest killed scores of people recently. The latest missile strike by an unmanned drone killed five people late Saturday. Not a single victim was believed to be a foreign Al-Qaeda fighter, officials said yesterday.

Two unmanned drones were seen above the town of Miranshah in the North Waziristan tribal region minutes before missiles hit a house near a matchbox factory on Saturday, two intelligence officials said.

They said reports from local informants so far said not a single victim was a foreigner. A private TV channel claimed Al-Qaeda operatives were among those killed. But a journalist based in Dera Ismail Khan, Saeedullah Khan, told Arab News those killed were local people removing rubble from a site hit by drones earlier.

Saeedullah said US spy planes frequently violate Pakistan’s airspace. There is panic among the local population given the increasing threat posed to their lives and properties by the unmanned planes. An unmanned drone flew over North Waziristan hours after the missile strike that killed five people, residents said.

Also yesterday, Pakistani helicopter gunships bombed a meeting of militants linked to Al-Qaeda near the border with Afghanistan, leaving 35 fighters dead, security officials said. Among the dead in yesterday’s attack were two Taleban commanders and about 12 potential suicide bombers, officials said. “Helicopter gunships carried out a successful raid at a militant hide-out in Orakzai district killing 35,” a senior security official told AFP. Separately, a paramilitary official confirmed around a dozen potential suicide bombers were among those killed. Al-Qaeda and the Taleban, which have both Afghan and Pakistani components, have established bases in Pakistan’s tribal regions, where they are said to plan attacks on US and NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan.

Under US pressure, Pakistan has carried out military offensives against insurgents while also trying to woo various tribes to turn against extremists. But the US has recently signaled its impatience with Pakistani efforts by apparently staging several cross-border assaults.

The latest strike brings to 12 the number of missile attacks believed carried out by the US since mid-August. More than 100 people, most of them alleged militants, have been killed, according to figures provided to The Associated Press by Pakistani intelligence officials.

The US rarely confirms or denies the attacks. An official told the AP that helicopter gunships shelled militants' bunkers overnight in the Charmang area of Bajaur.

—With input from agencies