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45 killed in Pakistani missile attacks
AP
Thursday, July 09, 2009
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) - Suspected US drones launched two missile attacks on Taliban targets in the South Waziristan tribal region yesterday, killing at least 45 militants in the latest in a barrage of strikes close to the Afghan border, intelligence officials said.
The army said the top Taliban commander in another area of the north-west, the scenic Swat Valley, was wounded in a Pakistani airstrike. It gave no more details.
South Waziristan lies close to the Afghan border and is the stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.
Pakistan's military is also bombing and firing mortars at insurgent targets in the region, saying it is chipping away at Mehsud's resistance before launching a ground offensive there to eliminate him. Mehsud is blamed for many of the bloodiest terrorist attacks in nuclear-armed Pakistan in recent years.
The first strike took place before dawn. A suspected US drone fired six missiles at a mountaintop training camp in the Karwan Manza area of South Waziristan, killing 10 militants, the intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to media. The nationalities and the identities of the slain men were not immediately known.
Hours later, 12 miles (20 kilometres) to the east, missiles believed fired from a US drone hit four vehicles carrying Taliban militants, killing at least 35, including a key Taliban commander, one intelligence official said. He did not disclose the commander's identity.
Other intelligence officials put the death toll as high as 50.
Independent verification of the casualties and the target was not possible because the region is remote, dangerous and largely inaccessible to journalists. US officials do not publicly comment on the strikes.
The latest strike brings to six the number of suspected American missile attacks in South Waziristan in just over two weeks, an uptick that suggests Washington is also trying to kill or weaken Mehsud and his followers in the run-up to the Pakistani campaign.
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