My World Earth: Officials: Suspected US drones kill 13

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Officials: Suspected US drones kill 13

Hundreds have been killed in drone attacks since mid-2008.

Suspected US drones have increasingly targeted North Waziristan, a bastion of Al-Qaeda fighters and the Haqqani network

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A bomb exploded in Pakistani-controled Kashmir killing three security personnel

A suspected double US drone attack has killed at least 15 people in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region.

The strikes on Wednesday occurred in North Waziristan, where several opposition groups stage attacks inside the district and into bordering Afghanistan.

Some officials have claimed that as many as 12 opposition fighters were among those dead.

The first drone attack hit a mud fort in Datta Khel region of the tribal district, with the second missile striking as people were searching in the rubble more than an hour later.

Kamal Hyder, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the capital Islamabad, said it was hard to say whether those who died were opposition fighters or citizens.

Tensions

"We never know whether they are militants or civilians because if you look at the number of strikes and the number of casualties on the ground the militants do not figure very prominently," he said.

"Today ... there was the first strike by the drone in which six people were killed. Immediately after that people went to the rescue and as the rescue efforts were still underway the second strike took place, causing the death toll to rise to at least 15 people.

"This is likely to cause considerable anger because that rescue effort was an effort to save lives and as it came under attack it is likely to raise tensions between Pakistan and the US."

The US has identified North Waziristan as an area from where al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the large Haqqani network launch attacks on their own and international forces in Afghanistan and is increasingly initiating crackdowns in the region.

At least seven US CIA agents were killed by a suicide bomber last week across the North Waziristan border in Afghanistan.

There have been a reported four drone attacks in North Waziristan since the CIA deaths, killing at least 20 people.

At least 74 US drone missile strikes have killed nearly 700 people in Pakistan since August 2008.

Kashmir bombing

Separately, a bomb attack has killed three security personnel outside an army base in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, close to the line separating it from Indian territory, police say.

The attack came one day after Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistani president, visited the area.

The injured were removed to a hospital in Rawla Kot, an adjoining town.

The bomb exploded outside a barracks in Tarar Khal, 150km east of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir, Pakistan's private Geo television channel said.

Tarar Kehl is a small village with a local population of around 6,500 people.

Raja Farooq Haider, the elected leader of Pakistani Kashmir, confirmed the news of the explosion.

"The bomb blast took place in an army area. The authorities are on site. We have taken the injured to the nearby Rawla Kot hospital," he told Geo.

"Police and experts are investigating whether it was a suicide blast or a planted bomb."

Speaking from the nearby town of Pallandri, Irfan Masaood Kishvi, a senior police officer, told the AFP news agency: "It was a bomb blast. It could be a suicide blast, but we are collecting the evidence.

"It was outside the army barracks ... . Three security personnel have been martyred and three wounded. The injured have been taken to the Combined Military Hospital."

Two suspected US drone missile strikes have killed at least 12 people in a tribal region of north-west Pakistan, Pakistani security officials say.

The missiles targeted a compound described as a Taliban training centre, about 30km west of Miranshah the main town in North Waziristan.

Officials say the first strike killed seven people. Five died in a second attack as they searched for bodies.

It is the fourth suspected US drone attack in North Waziristan in a week.

North and South Waziristan are a major sanctuary for al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.

Hundreds of people, many of them civilians, have been killed in drone attacks since mid-2008. Top Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud was among them.

Pakistan has publicly criticised drone attacks, saying they fuel support for the militants.

The US military does not routinely confirm drone attacks, but analysts say the US armed forces and CIA in Afghanistan are the only forces capable of deploying drones in the region.

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