ISLAMABAD – A suspected US missile strike in Pakistan’s northwest killed at least 18 alleged militants yesterday, intelligence officials said.
Six missiles struck two vehicles in the Shera Tala area of the North Waziristan tribal region, and the death toll could rise, they added.
North Waziristan has been the primary target of a ramped-up campaign of US missile strikes fired from drones aimed at killing al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.
The area is a stronghold of insurgents fighting US and Nato troops across the border in Afghanistan.
The three intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to media on the record.
At least 110 US missile strikes have been launched this year – more than doubling last year’s total. Nearly all have targeted North Waziristan, a region hosting several militant groups battling US and Nato troops in Afghanistan, including the feared Haqqani network.
The exact identities of the 18 dead were not immediately clear.
The vehicles were apparently leaving a compound. One was carrying a large load of ammunition, worsening the missile blasts, the intelligence officials said.
On Christmas Day, a female suicide bomber killed 46 people in Bajaur, northwest Pakistan, a local official said. The burka-clad woman aged between 18 and 22 lobbed grenades and detonated an explosive vest near a World Food Programme distribution centre after being stopped by security personnel, said Mustaqeem Khan, a government official in the region.
At least 96 people were also injured in the attack at about 8.30am local time as officials were handing out food to victims of this year’s floods, said Gull Rehman, a government spokesman.
Khan said officials had collected body parts of the female attacker, who had attempted to join a line of men queuing for aid.
Prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani condemned the attack and said his government’s fight against militants would “continue till their complete elimination”, according to an e-mailed statement issued by the Information Ministry in the capital, Islamabad.
Operations at four WFP centres in the region will likely restart this week once security improves, spokesman Amjad Jamal said.
US president Barack Obama condemned what he called the “outrageous attack” in Bajaur. “Killing innocent civilians outside a World Food Programme distribution point is an affront to the people of Pakistan, and to all humanity,” Mr Obama said in a written statement.
UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon condemned an “abhorrent act of terrorism aimed at innocent people”. Pakistan’s government blames Taliban militants in the country’s tribal region for such attacks. – (AP, Bloomberg)