US drone strikes kill 15 in Pakistan
Missiles fired by US drones in two attacks yesterday killed 15 militants in Pakistan's tribal badlands, with 11 strikes targeting the lawless Afghan border area in 11 days, officials said.
In the first attack, officials said, four missiles hit a compound in Bushnarai village in Shawal district of North Waziristan, where Al-Qaeda-linked and Taliban fighters have carved out strongholds beyond government control.
"Eleven militants were killed in today's drone attack," a senior Pakistani security official in the area told AFP on condition of anonymity, updating an earlier toll for the first attack.
He described the area as a stronghold of Arab militants and said there were reports that "foreigners" -- a term for Al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan -- were among the dead but said the nationalities of the dead had not been confirmed.
Another security official confirmed that the remains of 11 people had been pulled out of the compound's wreckage.
US drones carried out low-level flights in different areas of North Waziristan, including Shawal where the first strike took place this morning, the second security official told AFP.
Shawal district is more than 300 kilometres (190 miles) from Pakistan's capital Islamabad, headquarters of the country's civilian government.
The area is a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur and is populated by Arab fighters.
The second drone attack took place in Qutabkhel village in the outskirts of Miranshah on yesterday evening, killing four militants, officials said, bringing the day's toll to 15.
"A US drone fired two missiles on a vehicle carrying militants outside Miranshah," a senior security official told AFP.
"At least four militants were killed in the attack," the official said, adding that the identities of the militants were not immediately known.
A fresh surge in US missile strikes has killed 64 militants since September 3 in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt, which Washington has branded a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous spot on Earth.
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