Seven killed in missile attack in Pakistan

Seven people were killed and two injured in a missile attack in northwestern Pakistan's tribal area on Monday morning, Geo TV reported.

The attack was launched by unidentified people on the office of a radical outfit at Bara in Khyber district, said the report.

No group has claimed responsibility for the missile attack.

Security forces, which had launched an offensive Saturday against pro-Taliban rebels in Khyber tribal region on Saturday, secured the Bara town and some of its surrounding areas on Sunday.

The tribal belt in the northwest of the country has long been a hotbed of radical rebellion, which challenged the authority of the federal government and sought to run its own writ in the area.

The coalition federal government headed by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani had, to the chagrin of the US, opened peace talks with the rebels to end violence which subsequently broke down after the rebels threatened to attack Peshawar.

Gillani has given full authority to the army chief in connection with the military operation in northwestern Pakistan.

After Saturday's army offensive to flush the radicals from the Khyber region, rebel outfit Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) on Sunday scrapped all ceasefire agreements with the government and warned that the army's attack could have a ripple effect of militant violence across the country.