Islamabad, Sep 25 (DPA) A suspected US unmanned aircraft fired two missiles at a militant hideout in Pakistan’s ungoverned tribal region on the border with Afghanistan, killing at least 12 people, intelligence officials said Friday.
The attack took place Thursday just before midnight in Dandy Darpa Khel village near Mir Ali town of the North Waziristan tribal district, where Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters have havens.
“According to the information we have received from our local sources, 12 people died in the strike while several were injured,” said an intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Almost all of those killed were Taliban.”
Another intelligence official who also asked not to be named said the target was an office run by a group led by Afghan Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose men conduct cross-border attacks on Western troops in Afghanistan.
The US Central Intelligence Agency has intensified drone attacks along the Afghan-Pakistan border in recent months, killing dozens of Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders and fighters.
A similar strike eliminated the warlord and chief of the Pakistani Taliban, Baitullah Mehsud, in early August.
Earlier this month, Najmiddin Jalolov, alias Yahov, an important leader of an Uzbek militant group that is closely associated with Al Qaeda, died in a missile attack, also near Mir Ali.
Pakistani officially condemn the drone attacks, saying they violate Pakistan’s sovereignty, but Pakistani security officials quietly share intelligence with the US, leading to the air strikes.
