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US missile hits militants in Pakistan tribal area: officials
Miranshah, Pakistan (AFP) Nov 19, 2009 At least four militants were killed and five others wounded in a US drone missile strike in Pakistan's tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said Thursday. The attack took place in Shanakhora village of North Waziristan, an area where Washington says Islamist fighters are hiding out and planning attacks on Western troops stationed in neighbouring Afghanistan. "It was a US drone attack which targeted a militant compound killing four militants and wounding five others," a senior security official in the area told AFP. He said two missiles were fired from a US drone. Another security official confirmed the attack. "The compound was being used by Taliban militants, however it is not clear whether there were any foreign militants or high-value targets," the official told AFP. Residents in Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan tribal district, said they heard two loud blasts just before midnight. The attack came against the backdrop of a continuing military offensive in neighbouring South Waziristan, a stronghold of the feared Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). Pakistan has vowed to quash Tehreek-e-Taliban in South Waziristan, part of the border area with Afghanistan that Washington calls the most dangerous place in the world because of the abundance of Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters. Pakistan launched its fierce air and ground offensive in the region on October 17, with 30,000 troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships laying siege to TTP boltholes. The military says 550 militants and 70 soldiers have been killed since the army offensive began, but none of the losses can be confirmed independently. The long-anticipated assault into South Waziristan came after a spring offensive in and around the northwestern Swat valley, which the government declared a success in July. However, sporadic outbreaks of violence continue. The US military does not, as a rule, confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy pilotless drones in the region. Islamabad publicly opposes the US missile attacks, with more than 60 such strikes killing more than 580 people since August 2008. But the Pakistani government welcomed the death of Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud in a drone attack on August 5. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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