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ISLAMABAD – A suspected U.S. drone fired two missiles Wednesday at an alleged hide-out connected to a Taliban leader who has threatened to attack Washington, killing 12 people and wounding several others, officials said. The attack came a day after Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on a police academy in the eastern city of Lahore, saying it was retaliation for U.S. missile strikes on militant strongholds along the Afghan border. Mehsud also vowed to launch an attack on Washington or even the White House in phone interviews with The Associated Press and local media....

ISLAMABAD – Missiles believed fired from a U.S. unmanned plane slammed into a house used by militants in northwestern Pakistan on Thursday, killing seven people, a government official and a witness said, The identities of the victims in the attack in Kurram region were not immediately known. A senior official in the region said the house targeted was believed to be frequented by Islamist militants. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information. Villager Ismail Khan said spy planes were seen hovering over the area shortly before the attack, adding that local militants...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Two suspected U.S missile attacks killed 18 people Friday in Pakistan just east of the Afghan border, security officials said, the first such strikes since the inauguration of President Barack Obama. At least five victims were identified as foreign militants, an intelligence officer said. The strikes, which hit two districts of the lawless region where al-Qaida militants are known to hide out, are the latest in a barrage of more than 30 since the middle of last year.

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan – Pakistani intelligence officials say a suspected U.S. missile strike has killed three people in a militant stronghold near the Afghan border.

ISLAMABAD (AFP) – A missile strike by a suspected US drone killed at least three militants early Saturday in a northwestern Pakistani tribal district known as a hub of Al-Qaeda and Taliban, officials said. "The strike destroyed a militant hideout in the village of Alikhel in North Waziristan," a senior security official who declined to be named told AFP.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) -- Suspected U.S. missiles hit a house frequented by an Arab militant near the Afghan border Friday and killed 15 people, intelligence officials said, in the latest alleged American attack on targets inside Pakistan. It was unclear if the Arab, identified as Abu Kasha Iraqi, was among those killed, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. Suspected U.S. missile attacks have killed at least two senior al-Qaida commanders in Pakistan's wild border zone this year, putting some pressure on extremist groups accused of planning attacks...

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) – A suspected U.S. drone fired a missile into a Pakistani village in North Waziristan tribal region early on Thursday, a Reuters witness said, the latest in a series of such attacks in recent weeks. The strike targeted a village near Waziristan's main town of Miranshah where Jalaluddin Haqqani, a veteran Taliban commander and an old friend of Osama bin Laden, had established a madrasa or religious school and where his extended family used to be living. There was no immediate word on casualties. "A large number of militants are rushing toward the area in vehicles," the...

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) - A missile strike by a suspected US spy drone hit a house in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan, killing at least four people and wounding nine, security officials said Wednesday. The attack is the latest in a string of incidents on the rugged frontier that have raised tensions between Islamabad and Washington, including a clash between Pakistani troops and US-led forces in Afghanistan. It happened shortly after Pashtun tribesmen shot at three drones circling the village of Khusali Toorikhel in North Waziristan, a known haunt of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants. "After the drones came under...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's army lodged a formal protest Friday to "allied forces" in neighboring Afghanistan over a suspected U.S. missile strike this week that killed 14 people in a Pakistani border village. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said Pakistan concluded that Wednesday's attack on a house in Damadola village was launched by drones from Afghanistan. Abbas said a formal protest was lodged Friday with "allied forces" in Afghanistan, an apparent reference to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force that is fighting the Taliban-led insurgency there. The U.S. is among the nations contributing to ISAF. Abbas said 14 people...

SAN DIEGO – A 24-year-old U.S. citizen suspected of smuggling two illegal immigrants was arrested at the San Ysidro port of entry Saturday, officials said. The woman, a San Diego resident, was registered in the SENTRI frequent traveler program and was using one of the program's exclusive travel lanes at the time of her arrest. Agents said she presented U.S. passports for herself and her son around 10 p.m. An agent reached behind the driver's seat and felt a person hidden in the Dodge Ram truck, officials said. The woman was sent to a secondary inspection area where agents discovered...

SAN DIEGO – Border Patrol agents shot a suspected migrant smuggler early Wednesday in a predawn raid on a San Ysidro motel. The injured man was hit in the leg, police said. He was taken to a San Diego hospital where his wound was deemed not life-threatening. The incident began shortly after 3:30 a.m. when several uniformed Border Patrol agents entered Room 252 of the Economy Inn on Via de San Ysidro off Interstate 5, said San Diego police Capt. Cesar Solis. That's where they confronted two Latino men, one of whom was known to have a history of immigrant...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese military intelligence officials have detained members of a suspected "terrorist network" for plotting attacks against U.N. peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, the army said Monday. The group had planted a bomb near the southern city of Tyre in an attempt to target a U.N. patrol, but it did not explode because of a problem with the trigger, the army said in a statement. The suspects also admitted they planned to plant two other bombs in the area and detonate them within a short period "in order to cause maximum casualties among the forces," the statement said. Two...

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghan police and foreign forces killed around 60 suspected Taliban fighters, many in the region where the insurgents recently released a group of South Korean church workers they had been holding, authorities said Saturday. Meanwhile, South Korea's foreign minister defended direct negotiations with the Taliban to free the hostages amid concern the move violated international principles and could spur more abductions. Police attacked a group of Taliban late Friday who were planning to strike security forces in the central Afghan province of Ghazni, killing 18 and arresting six others, said provincial police Gen. Ali Shah Ahmadai. Taliban...

THE HAGUE (AFP) - Police in Amsterdam arrested more than 100 West Africans Saturday as part of a seven month long investigation into Internet fraud, they said. Spokeswoman Sita Koenders told AFP that 111 people were arrested for being in the Netherlands illegally and "now we must investigate in what way they are implicated in Internet fraud." Eight of those arrested were carrying false papers and they have been prosecuted. The others were detained and then released unless there were any extra charges against them, the police said in a statement. In October, Dutch police launched Operation Apollo to fight...

An illegal immigrant arrested in connection with a collision that killed a father of five was drunk and on drugs, and had four previous drunken driving convictions, law officers said. Jose Pena, 26, was allegedly traveling 90 miles per hour on March 31 when he crossed a double yellow line and hit 33-year-old Kent Boone. He also allegedly had two pounds of crystal methamphetamine in his truck, according to California Highway Patrol officers who later checked Pena's home and found more drugs. Pena was booked into the Solano County Jail on suspicion of murder, driving under the influence and drug...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - British soldiers backed by U.S. military helicopters battled insurgents near the Kuwaiti border Friday, close to where a private security team of four Americans and an Austrian were kidnapped. A top police official said a criminal gang had snatched the men and demanded ransom. Gunmen wearing police uniforms abducted the security team near Safwan, a largely Sunni Arab city of 200,000 people in southern Iraq. The attack took place shortly after the Westerners had crossed the Kuwaiti border with a large convoy of supply trucks. The convoy was traveling on the Iraq Military Road, which is infrequently...

KABUL, Afghanistan, Aug. 24, 2006 – Seven suspected al Qaeda facilitators were killed early today when Afghan and coalition forces conducted an operation on a compound housing suspected terrorists near the village of Asmar in Kunar province, U.S. military officials reported. Afghan and coalition forces came under direct fire when approaching the compound and defended themselves with return fire. Afghan and coalition forces continued to take fire from hostile forces in the surrounding area after the initial objective was secured. All of the men killed were engaging Afghan and coalition forces with hostile fire. A child, about 10 to 12...

BAGHDAD – Multi-National Division – Baghdad Soldiers foiled a kidnapping attempt by four men disguised as Iraqi policemen in southeast Baghdad early today. Soldiers from Company C, 3rd Battalion, 67th Armor Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, spotted four kidnappers dressed in Iraqi police uniforms attempting to abduct an Iraqi civilian. The four kidnappers were detained for questioning.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. soldiers arrested five suspected members of an alleged "death squad" south of Baghdad on Wednesday as Iraqi army troops battled insurgents on a major street in the center of the capital. In Washington, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told Congress that Iraq was a front line in the war on terrorism and said those behind the violence here are perverting Islam. The arrests occurred when troops of the 101st Airborne Division swept through a neighborhood in Mahmoudiya, 20 miles south of Baghdad, a U.S. statement said. The five suspects included the team leader, the statement said. Tensions...

About 75 illegal immigrants were found Tuesday in the desert about 50 miles west of Phoenix, many suffering from dehydration and exhaustion from triple-digit heat, authorities said. Seven immigrants and three sheriff's deputies were taken to hospitals for treatment, said Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio. Officers used a helicopter, canine units and all-terrain vehicles and conducted foot patrols to search for others believed to be in the area, officials said. "We know they're still out there because there's sounds in the brush," said Lt. Paul Chagolla, a sheriff's department spokesman. "We can hear them. They've hunkered down." Lt. Chuck Siemens,...