US Drone Strike Taliban Hideout in Pak
At least five people were killed as US missiles slammed into a Pakistani Taliban commander’s hideout and a madarssa used to train militants, said reports.
Number of people killed is not confirmed with security sources keeping the toll from 5 to 13 people.
“Three missiles hit the hideout of Taliban commander Noor Wali. Casualties are feared, but details are not immediately available,” one official said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Wali, a close aide of Mehsud, has a five-million-dollar US price on his head and a Pakistani bounty of 615,000 dollars for his capture, dead or alive.
In missile assault, Wali compound was hit in the tribal village of Kokat Khel in South Waziristan lying on the Afghanistan border some 45 kms east of Wana.
“It was a US drone attack. We have checked – no Pakistani aircraft was involved in this incident,”a Pakistani military official said.
According to one security official, initial reports suggested put to death toll to five while another security official received information that at least 13 people died – three in Mantoi and more than 10 in Kokat Khel, but he that said an exact figure was unclear due to the remote terrain outside direct government control.
Senior officials said early death tolls were being released only by local officials and there was no top-level confirmation of the numbers killed.
It should be mentioned that US has dispatched an additional 21, 000 troops to Afghanistan to combat Taliban and stabilize the country in compliance with a sweeping new war strategy.
Pakistani troops have been pressing a two-month battle to dislodge Taliban insurgents in three northwest districts and have waged air raids in South Waziristan to lay the groundwork for a ground assault against Mehsud.
The United States 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.
