Missile strike kills 8 militants in Pakistan
The suspected U.S. attack was in territory under the sway of a top Taliban commander.
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - A suspected U.S. missile attack killed eight militants, including several foreigners, yesterday in the stronghold of Pakistan's top Taliban commander, intelligence officials said.
The strike came as President Obama's administration prepared to unveil a new strategy to quell Islamist insurgents threatening nuclear-armed Pakistan as well as neighboring Afghanistan and to keep al-Qaeda leaders in the region under pressure.
American officials have indicated that attacks along Pakistan's unpoliced western frontier, apparently carried out by unmanned CIA aircraft and stepped up since last year, will continue despite protests from the Pakistani government.
Two Pakistani intelligence officials said the strike, near Makeen, a town in the South Waziristan tribal region bordering Afghanistan, killed four foreigners in a pickup truck near a small bridge. Four local militants also died, while three were injured, they said, citing informants and intercepted militant communications.
Reporters cannot verify reports from the area because authorities and militants limit access.
Makeen is the base of Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of Pakistan's own Taliban movement. There was no immediate indication that he was among those targeted.
In apparent frustration at Pakistan's stop-and-start efforts to gain control of its border areas, U.S. forces have carried out dozens of missile attacks on al-Qaeda and Taliban targets in Pakistan's unpoliced border belt since last year.
U.S. officials say the strikes have killed a string of militant leaders and put al-Qaeda on the defensive.
The Pakistani government argues that the tactic is counterproductive because it kills civilians, stokes anti-American feeling in the Islamic world's only nuclear-armed country, and undermines its own efforts to isolate extremists.
While the missile strikes have been concentrated in North and South Waziristan, the Pakistani army has launched offensives against militants in border areas farther north.
The military last month declared victory in Bajur, the most northerly of Pakistan's impoverished tribal regions, saying it had eliminated a "mega-sanctuary" for militants mounting attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
The operation flattened towns and villages and forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes and spend the winter in makeshift camps.
Yesterday, hundreds of camp dwellers blocked a main road near the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar in the latest in a series of protests for more government assistance.
Police fired assault rifles and tear gas to disperse them, and at least one person was shot dead.