A suspected US drone fired two missiles on Thursday into a Pakistani tribal area, killing at least five people, security officials said. The strike in South Waziristan came hours after a suicide bomb destroyed a police station in the Swat valley and killed three security force personnel and one officer, according to official sources.
“Two missiles were fired, completely destroying the house. Reports confirm five dead,” a security official said on condition of anonymity.
There was no immediate confirmation of the strike from the Pakistani military or from the US-led coalition in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Residents cleared debris from the remains of the house in the search for more bodies after the drones, which had circled over the scene following the attack, flew away.
South Waziristan is a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, but officials were unable to confirm he was the target of the attack. Mehsud, the head of the umbrella Taliban organisation Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), was accused by the government and by the United States of masterminding the killing of former premier Benazir Bhutto in December 2007.
About 80 per cent of the more than 70 suicide bombings across the country since July 2007 have been carried out by members of Mehsud’s tribe, officials say.
{{/usCountry}}About 80 per cent of the more than 70 suicide bombings across the country since July 2007 have been carried out by members of Mehsud’s tribe, officials say.
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