Updated at: 2251 PST, Monday, May 16, 2011
 MIRANSHAH: Two US drone strikes targeting a militant compound and a vehicle in Pakistan's lawless tribal district of North Waziristan killed at least nine people on Monday, officials said.
Both the attacks took place in Mir Ali town, some 40 kilometres (25 miles) east of Miranshah, a stronghold of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants and the main town in North Waziristan tribal district along the Afghan border.
Two US drones fired two missiles into a militant compound, and minutes later another drone fired two missiles at a vehicle close to the compound, officials said.
It was not clear whether the drones were pursuing any "high-value target" but two intelligence officials in Miranshah said they had received reports from informers on the ground that those killed in the compound were all foreigners.
Monday's attacks were the fifth and sixth to be reported in Pakistan's tribal areas near the Afghan border since US commandos killed Osama bin Laden in a secret raid in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad on May 2.
The new attacks coincided with a visit by US Senator John Kerry to Islamabad -- the first visit by a senior US figure since the raid -- in a bid to smooth relations severely strained by the commando operation.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is also poised to visit her country's nuclear-armed ally after Pakistani leaders were left angry and embarrassed by the unilateral raid.
The Pakistani parliament has called for an end to United States drone strikes on its soil and said there must be no repeat of the operation that killed bin Laden.
Washington does not confirm drone attacks, but its military and the CIA operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy them in the region, aiming to eliminate Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants.
The strikes inflame anti-American feeling in Pakistan, which worsened after since a CIA contractor shot dead two Pakistani men in a busy Lahore street in January, and again after the bin Laden raid.
US President Barack Obama has said that his country reserves the right to act again on Pakistani soil.
But on Monday, after Senator Kerry's visit, Pakistan said it would work with the United States on future operations targeting militant leaders in the country.
"It was ... agreed that the two countries will work together in any future actions against high-value targets in Pakistan," said Pakistan's foreign ministry. |
ShareThis
