Posted on 07/03/2009 8:00:50 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) – A U.S. drone aircraft fired missiles on Friday into Pakistan's South Waziristan region, killing 10 militants, officials said, ahead of an expected Pakistani military offensive in the area.
The United States, facing a growing Afghan insurgency, began stepping up drone attacks on militant strongholds in lawless enclaves on the Pakistani side of the border a year ago despite Pakistani complaints.
Three missiles were fired at militant hideouts in an area near the Afghan border controlled by Pakistani Taliban leader and al Qaeda ally Baitullah Mehsud, killing 10 militants and wounding seven, two intelligence agency officials said.
"The missiles hit an office of Mufti Noor Wali, who was once in charge of training militants for suicide attacks," one of the officials said.
It was not known if Wali was among the dead, or if any foreign militants had been killed, they said.
The attack came as Pakistani troops stepped up pressure on Mehsud's strongholds, carrying out air strikes by jet fighters in recent weeks to soften up targets before an expected full-scale offensive.
The drone attack also came a day after thousands of U.S. Marines launched an offensive against the Afghan Taliban in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, and as British troops seized important canal crossings in support of that effort.
Helmand shares a 200-km (130-mile) desert border with the southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
How come Obama only nails militants while GWB kept hitting wedding party’s? /s
earlier thread
Suspected US drone strike kills 11 in South Waziristan
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2284742/posts
US Air Force mechanics load a missile onto a Predator drone. US missiles have slammed into the hideout of a Pakistani Taliban commander allied to warlord Baitullah Mehsud in the tribal belt, killing at least seven militants. (AFP/US Air Force/File/Sabrina Johnson)
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