The strike was followed hours later by a suicide attack in the northwestern tribal region of Khyber that officials said killed 21 policemen.

The US strike "targeted a Taliban compound in Kaniguram village of South Waziristan, killing eight militants and wounding six others," a senior security official told AFP.

Another official confirmed the casualties and said that the US drone fired two missiles, but added it was not immediately clear whether there was any high-value target present in the area at the time.

He said: "Militants were using the compound of local tribesman Azam Khan Mehsud for their activities in the area.

"Nationalities of all the militants killed in the strike were not immediately known but some of them were Uzbek nationals."

He added that the village was known to contain hideouts belonging to fighters loyal to slain Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.

Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone attack on August 5, although his death was only confirmed by Taliban commanders on Tuesday.

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 drones in the region.

Hours after the drone attack, a suicide attacker blew himself up in the police residential barracks in Torkham, a town near the Afghan border.

A senior administration official, Rehan Gul Khattak, told AFP the authorities had found "the head of the bomber" and a security official in the area also confirmed the attack and the number of casualties.

Pakistan in April launched a punishing military offensive against the Taliban in the northwest, targeting the rebels in the districts of Swat, Buner and Lower Dir after militants advanced closer to the capital Islamabad.

Last month the military claimed to have cleared the area of Taliban and vowed to turn their attention to the mountainous tribal belt along the border where Mehsud and his Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have thrived since 2007.

Pakistan's previous government accused Mehsud of masterminding the 2007 assassination of ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto and a string of other attacks that have killed hundreds of people here over the last two years.

Washington alleges Al-Qaeda and Taliban rebels who fled Afghanistan after the 2001 US-led invasion are holed up in the semi-autonomous tribal belt.

Islamabad publicly opposes suspected US missile strikes, saying they violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among the populace. Since August 2008, around 52 such strikes have killed more than 521 people.

But many analysts and observers believe that the government tacitly supports the attacks, as it shares the US goal of eliminating Mehsud's network, which is blamed for scores of deadly attacks in nuclear-armed Pakistan.

Meanwhile, Pakistani troops killed nine Taliban militants in the northwestern district of Buner and Swat valley on Thursday, officials said.

"Army troops and police exchanged fire with militants after they attacked a police post in Buner, killing seven rebels," local administration official Yahya Akhundzada told AFP.

A local police official also confirmed the incident and casualties and said troops arrested four militants after the gunfight.

Troops killed two other rebels following a gunfight in Kabal village of Swat, a local security official said, adding that the firefight broke out after militants attacked an army checkpost.

Share This Article With Planet Earth

del.icio.us	Digg	Reddit
YahooMyWeb	Google	Facebook

Related Links
News From Across The Stans

Memory Foam Mattress Review

SPACE MEDIA NETWORK PROMOTIONS Solar Energy Solutions Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison ... Newsletters :: SpaceDaily :: SpaceWar :: TerraDaily :: Energy Daily XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News