Suspected US missiles killed two alleged militants early today in a northwest Pakistan tribal region, intelligence officials said, while Pakistani soldiers battled Taliban fighters in a neighboring stretch along the Afghan border.
The attack indicates the US will continue the use of drones against Islamist extremists despite Pakistani concerns that civilian deaths caused by the missile strikes will anger insurgents who have agreed to stay neutral as the army wages an offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in South Waziristan.
The drone-fired missiles hit a house in Naurak village in the North Waziristan tribal area overnight, the two officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media on the record.
However, local tribesman Inayat Wazir told the Associated Press on the phone that the house was empty and no one had died. It was not immediately possible to independently verify either claim due to the dangerous nature of the region.
The area struck is believed to be under the control of Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a warlord involved in fighting US and Nato troops in Afghanistan. Pakistan's military has struck a deal with Bahadur - saying they would leave him alone as long as he stayed out of their way as they fight the Pakistani Taliban, the network the government blames for most of the suicide bombings in the country, in South Waziristan.
A CIA missile strike killed the Pakistani Taliban's former leader, Baitullah Mehsud, in August just as Pakistan's military was using airstrikes to soften up targets ahead of a ground offensive, and local intelligence officials later confirmed they had aided the US in tracking down the target.
The ground offensive launched in mid-October, and the army already says it has killed hundreds of insurgents.
The military said on Wednesday that soldiers were fighting street by street through the mountainous town of Ladha, one of three main Taliban strongholds in South Waziristan. Over the previous day, the fighting left 10 militants dead in Ladha and 30 dead across the region, it said. Eight soldiers have been injured.
The army already has taken control of much of another key town, Sararogha, and is expected to launch an attack soon on Makeen, which the authorities have called the "nerve centre" of the Pakistani Taliban.
AP