ISLAMABAD: At least 20 people were killed in a missile attack carried out by a suspected US drone while 10 security personnel and a technician died in a suicide bombing in Pakistan’s tribal region, officials said yesterday.
A single missile fired from a pilotless aircraft hit the house of local Taleban commander Mohammad Omar late Sunday in the Shakai area of South Waziristan, they said. “Commander Omar and 19 more people died in the strike, and three were injured,” a security official said.
The attack demolished Omar’s house and badly damaged two adjacent buildings. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said eight among the dead were believed to be “foreigners,” the term used to refer to Al-Qaeda-linked fighters of Arab and Central Asian origin.
The area where the strike took place is considered a stronghold of Baitullah Mehsud, purported to be the head of the Pakistani Taleban.
In another development, a suicide bomber rammed an explosive-laden car into a security post in Mohmand Agency, another tribal district. The post, which was jointly manned by the paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) and tribal police called Khasadars, was destroyed.
“Seven FC soldiers and three Khasadars died in the incident,” a local intelligence official said. “One telecommunications engineer present at the blast site was also killed.” Mohmand borders Bajaur Agency, where government troops have been conducting a major offensive against Taleban militants since early August.
Later yesterday, political and ethnic Pashtun tribal leaders from Afghanistan and Pakistan began a two-day Jirga, or traditional council, to discuss ways to end the violence, including the possibility of talks with the Taleban.
Critics say the Jirga will be little more than a talking shop without the participation of representatives of the Taleban but delegates said their aim was to prepare for talks. “Our agenda is to have contacts with the opposition to the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan and to find their point of view and create an environment for dialogue,” said Mohammad Ibrahim, a Pashtun member of a Pakistani religious party.
Both Pakistan and Afghanistan say they are ready to talk to militants who lay down arms but the United States is wary of peace efforts, saying short-lived Pakistani pacts over the past few years had only given the militants breathing space.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said this month the United States would be prepared to reconcile with the Taleban, but not with Al-Qaeda, if the Afghan government pursued talks. Afghanistan has taken a first step toward opening talks with the Taleban with a meeting in Saudi Arabia last month between a group of pro-government Afghan officials and former Taleban officials.
Former Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah, leading the Afghan delegation, said the government had always left the door open for talks with those who respected the constitution and shunned violence. But he said it was equally important to strengthen cooperation in dealing with militancy.
“Those who want to fight, I think they are the common enemy of the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan. We have to ... fight them in a coordinated manner,” said another Afghan member of the Jirga, Farooq Wardak.
— With input from agencies
