US missile strikes kill seven in Pakistan

Author: 
ISHTIAQ MAHSUD| AP
Publication Date: 
Sun, 2011-03-13 23:11

The two officials say the Sunday evening strikes also wounded five militants in Spalgah village near Miran Shah in North Waziristan.
The officials say two missiles first hit a vehicle and four more struck a compound, a Pakistani Taleban hide-out. The tribal region is home to several militant groups focused on attacking US and its allied NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan.
The Pakistani Taleban have also taken refuge there after an army offensive in their neighboring headquarters of South Waziristan.
Gunmen ambushed a van and killed nine civilians Sunday in a stretch of northwestern Pakistan covered by a new peace deal among rival tribes. Security forces responding to the attack killed three alleged gunmen, police said.
The clash does not bode well for the future of the peace deal in the Kurram tribal region, which stopped a four-year conflict that had cost hundreds of lives. There have been reports that Taleban militants planned to take advantage of the deal to gain more territory along the Afghan border.
Police official Mir Chaman Khan said the attack occurred in Hangu district along the main road from Kurram to the city of Peshawar.
The road had recently reopened after the Toori and Bangash tribes inked the deal with the Mangal and other tribes.  The van was coming from Parachinar, a town in Kurram. Khan declined to speculate on who was behind the attack.

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