ISLAMABAD, 30 January 2008 — A missile fired by a drone killed 12 militants in Miranshah’s village of Khushali Torikhail in North Waziristan late on Monday. Four of those killed were foreign fighters, intelligence officials who did not want to be identified said.
They did not say whether the drone was operated by Pakistani forces or flew from across the Afghan border. The village is near the town of Mir Ali.
The nationalities of the foreigners was not known.
Residents said two drones had been flying over the area on Monday night. They said “foreign guests” had been staying at the house at the time of the attack.
Militants were not allowing anyone to approach the house yesterday, said one resident, Fida Wazir.
US forces in neighboring Afghanistan have fired missiles at militants on the Pakistani side of the border several times in recent years. Neither US nor Pakistani authorities officially confirm US missile attacks on Pakistani territory, which would be an infringement of Pakistani sovereignty.
Pakistan, an important US ally despite widespread public opposition to the American-led campaign against Al-Qaeda and the Taleban, says foreign troops would never be allowed to operate on its territory.
Many Al-Qaeda members, including Uzbeks and Arabs, and Taleban militants took refuge in North and South Waziristan, as well as in other areas on the Pakistani side of the border after US-led forces ousted the Taleban in Afghanistan in 2001.
From sanctuaries in the lawless border belt, the Taleban have orchestrated their insurgency against the Afghan government and the US and NATO forces supporting it.
Increasingly, so-called Pakistani Taleban have been mounting attacks in Pakistani towns and cities, many aimed at security forces and other government targets.
The clashes came a day after armed men captured and later released about 250 schoolchildren in Bannu district.
Meanwhile, the military said fresh fighting had erupted in the Shishamwan village in South Waziristan. One soldier has been killed in the fighting.
The Pakistani military said in a statement that it could not “ascertain” the casualties suffered by the militants during yesterday’s fighting.
In the southern port city of Karachi, security forces exchanged gunfire with militants holed up in a house. Three militants and two policemen died.
Two extremists were also arrested, officials said, adding that they were from a banned Al-Qaeda-linked group blamed for a 2004 attack on a top general in Karachi that killed 11 people.
Police backed by paramilitary troops surrounded the building in a crowded residential area after a tip-off that militants were inside, police official Akram Mughal said.
“There were eight of them inside. They opened fire on us and we retaliated,” Mughal said. He later said that police entered the building and rescued three women and two children. They also found a man who said he was abducted by the militants, although they were still investigating.
Gunfire continued into the night. Television footage showed police and camouflaged troops with assault rifles shooting at the building and, later, removing the body of a bearded man.
Police evacuated the emergency ward of a city hospital after they found that one of the injured militants still had a hand grenade on him, Dr. Seemi Jamali said.
— Additional input from agencies
