7 Missiles strike Pakistan tribal area

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AP

Missiles strike Pakistan tribal area

By BASHIRULLAH KHAN, Associated Press Writer 2 hours, 21 minutes

ago

MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan - A missile strike near the Afghan border

destroyed the house of a suspected militant leader Sunday, killing

at least 20 people, witnesses and state-run Pakistan Television

said.

Seven missiles were fired in the strike in the tribal area of South

Waziristan, the television report said. The Pakistani military said

five or six explosions were heard near Wana, the main town in South

Waziristan.

Local tribesman Rahim Khan told The Associated Press missiles were

fired by an unmanned drone. At least two hit and destroyed the home

of a local militant leader and Taliban sympathizer who goes by the

single name Noorullah, Khan said.

Only U.S.-led coalition forces are known to have unmanned drones

operating in the region. Coalition forces based in neighboring

Afghanistan have also launched attacks inside the Pakistani border

in the past.

Khan said the house - a huge, fortress-like compound - was known as

a hub for visiting foreign militants. Four of those killed were not

locals, he said without elaborating, and seven other people were

wounded in the attack. Taliban supporters immediately surrounded the

area.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials in the area, both speaking on

condition of anonymity because of the nature of their work, said

another house nearby was also destroyed. Arab and Uzbek militants

had been staying in the house, which belongs to a tribesman named

Safraz Khan, the officials said.

Eight to ten people were killed in the second house, they said.

Maj. Belcher, a U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, said

coalition forces conducted an operation Sunday in Paktika province,

which lies just across the border from South Waziristan. But he said

he had no information about the Pakistan strike and doubted the two

incidents were related.

Osama bin Laden and other senior al-Qaida and Taliban leaders are

believed to be hiding out somewhere in the rugged, lawless tribal

regions along the Afghan-Pakistan border.

Pakistan has been battling Islamic militants linked to al-Qaida and

the Taliban in its border regions and the U.S. considers the

country's effort vital to the war on terrorism.

In January, a U.S. missile strike on a house killed Abu Laith

al-Libi, a senior al-Qaida militant, near Miran Shah, the main town

of neighboring North Waziristan. Pakistani intelligence officials

said they found the remains of satellite phones and a computer in

that wreckage.

___

Associated Press writer Ishtiaq Mehsud contributed to this report

from Dera Ismail Khan, Alisa Tang contributed from Kabul and

Frayer, Zarar Khan and Sadaqat Jan contributed from Islamabad.