Posted on 07/08/2009 9:30:54 AM PDT by csvset
At least 40 people have been killed in a suspected US missile strike in north-west Pakistan, local officials say.
They told the BBC three suspected US drones had fired missiles at militants near Ladha in South Waziristan.
It is the third strike in two days, after 19 reportedly died in attacks earlier on Wednesday and on Tuesday.
Separately the Pakistani army said a Taliban leader in Swat valley, Maulana Fazlullah, has been wounded, but there has been no independent confirmation.
Army spokesman, Major-General Athar Abbas, told reporters:
"We have credible information that Maulana Fazlullah has been injured... But it is not possible to confirm whether he is alive or not."
Maulana Fazlullah is a radical cleric who commands the Pakistani Taliban in the Swat Valley.
Analysts describe him as the "architect" of the two-year uprising aimed at enforcing Sharia law in the Swat Valley, where troops have been engaged in a bitter campaign to oust Islamist fighters.
Critical
US officials believe he is providing both the Taliban and al-Qaeda with a refuge in the region. They are offering a reward of $5m for his capture.
There have been dozens of drone strikes since last August, killing hundreds of militants and civilians.
Most of the strikes have taken place in the tribal regions of North and South Waziristan.
The latest attack took place on the road between Ladha and another town, Sararoga, local officials said. At least five missiles were fired at vehicles carrying Taliban fighters, they said.
Earlier, at least three missiles hit a suspected training camp for militants in South Waziristan, witnesses said.
Officials said the missiles were fired at a camp in the thickly-forested and mountainous Karwan Manza area, some 10km south-east of Ladha.
The area is close to the border with Afghanistan.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
DERA ISMAIL KHAN:
Two separate US missile strikes slammed into the stronghold of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud on Wednesday, killing 33 suspected fighters, security officials said.
The attacks, the suspected work of US drones, came as Pakistan reported that Maulana Fazlullah, the most-wanted Taliban commander in the Swat valley, also in the northwest, was injured during a recent army offensive.
In the first missile strike, in the early hours of the morning, six projectiles fired from an unmanned drone aircraft flattened an alleged training centre for Islamist extremists in South Waziristan, killing eight militants.
Hours later, another suspected drone targeted a convoy of vehicles carrying Taliban militants in the same province, officials said.
‘At least 25 militants have been killed in the US missile strike,’ a senior security official in the area told AFP, referring to the second attack.
Two other security officials confirmed the strikes and casualties, with one telling AFP that the death toll could still rise further.
Pakistani fighter jets have also pounded Mehsud hideouts in recent weeks, with the military vowing to hunt down the warlord’s militant network in the remote northwest region known as a base for Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels.
The first strike hit about 35 kilometres (20 miles) northeast of the main town Wana, with two officials confirming the death toll of eight.
It was not immediately clear whether any high-value targets were killed in either strike in the mountainous region bordering Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, a US missile strike killed 16 foreign and local militants in a nearby mountain stronghold of Mehsud, who has been described by the US State Department as a key Al-Qaeda facilitator in Pakistan’s tribal belt.
Also Wednesday, the Pakistani army said it had ‘credible’ information that Fazlullah, the commander of the Taliban in the Swat valley, had been injured in Pakistani air strikes two days ago.
When Obama is in Power it is the “Drone” That killed seven people.
When bush is in power it is him and that war criminal Dick Cheney pushing the button that erases seven dear precious souls off of the Poor abused Mother earth.
BTT. Good shooting.
Hey BBC it is a war and people are going to get killed.
I just love the way the BBC says “people” were killed. Yes, that’s right, our drones just indiscriminately bomb “people” and occasionally a terrorist gets killed too. I’d dearly love to fly a drone over the Beeb’s headquarters and watch them scatter.
Didn’t Obammy lambast Bush over this sort of thing?
Was there a recording reading then their Miranda rights just before they were hit by the missiles? The One’s DOJ appointees would insist on this would they not?
“We’ve got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we’re not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there.”
Barack Obama
On US troops in Afghanistan
August 14, 2007
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