Pakistan: U.S. drones kill nine
All were with the Taliban; 2 may have been commanders, officials said.
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - Suspected American drones fired several missiles into three militant hideouts near the Afghan border Sunday, killing nine Pakistani Taliban fighters, intelligence officials said.
The strikes targeted the group's hideouts in the South Waziristan tribal region, the three officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to reporters. The identities of the dead militants were not immediately known, they said, but two important commanders of the Pakistani Taliban - including the head of a training unit for suicide bombers - may have been among them.
Sunday's drone attack was the third suspected U.S. drone strike in five days. One such hit late Wednesday killed a top Pakistani militant commander, Maulvi Nazir, accused of carrying out deadly attacks against American and other targets across the border in Afghanistan. That attack was closely followed by a strike Thursday in the North Waziristan tribal area.
Islamabad opposes the use of U.S. drones on its territory but is believed to have tacitly approved some strikes in past. The drone campaign also infuriates many Pakistanis who see it as a violation of their country's sovereignty. Many Pakistanis complain that innocent civilians have also been killed, something the U.S. rejects.
But an attack like Sunday's may be less likely to anger the Pakistani military and public because it targeted militants believed to have been going after targets in Pakistan rather than in neighboring Afghanistan.
The Pakistani intelligence officials said informants had told them one of the two dead commanders was Wali Muhammad Mahsud, also known as Toofan, who headed a wing of the group that trained suicide bombers. His predecessor, Qari Husain Mehsud, was believed to have been killed in a U.S. missile strike in 2011.
Mahsud was part of the Pakistani Taliban that has waged a bloody war against the state by targeting army, police, government officials, civilians, and even religious leaders who would not agree to their interpretation of Islam.