Deaths in Pakistan ‘drone attack’

Two suspected US drone attacks targeting Haqqani network leave at least 14 people dead in North Waziristan region.

drone
undefined
Taliban attacks and drone strikes have made for a deadly week in flood-ravaged Pakistan [AFP]

At least 14 people have been killed in two suspected US drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal region, near the border with Afghanistan, officials said.

The attacks took place hours apart on Wednesday near Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan region.

At least 10 people were killed in the first attack, when missiles struck a compound, which officials say was used to house fighters allied with the Taliban an al-Qaeda.

The house targeted by the drone reportedly belonged to members of the Haqqani network – a faction fighting alongside the Taliban against US-led forces in Afghanistan.

A second drone attack later targeted a vehicle carrying other suspected Haqqani members.

“A US drone fired two missiles, which struck a vehicle carrying militants, killing four rebels,” a senior security official in the area told the AFP news agency. Another security official in the area confirmed the strike and casualties.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in air raids in the area since August 2008.

North Waziristan is known as a haven for Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters who enter Afghanistan.

Continued violence

On Tuesday, at least 20 people were killed and more than 56 injured in a car bomb attack targeting a police headquarters in Pakistan’s northwestern garrison town of Kohat in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. 

A number of houses collapsed from the force of the blast and rescuers sought to pull out survivors, but a senior Kohat administrative official said that most of the victims were women and children.

Yusuf Raza Gilani, Pakistan’s prime minister, denounced the Kohat attack as a “heinous crime”.

“While the nation is passing through difficult times due to devastating floods, these coward criminals have killed innocent Muslims when they were breaking their fast in their homes,” Gilani said in a statement.

A Taliban spokesman on Tuesday threatened more suicide attacks on security forces and government offices in response to the suspected US drone aircraft strikes.

“Americans are carrying out drone attacks with the permission of Pakistan and we will take revenge with suicide attacks on security forces, police and government offices,” Azim Tariq, a Taliban spokesman, told Reuters news agency.

“Drone attacks have killed dozens of innocent women and children but America has never expressed its regret.”

Source: News Agencies