U.S. Missile Attack Kills at Least 10 in Pakistan

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http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/08/world/asia/08pstan.html?ref=asia

U.S. Missile Attack Kills at Least 10 in Pakistan

By PIR ZUBAIR SHAH and ALAN COWELL

Published: November 7, 2008

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Missiles fired from a remotely piloted United

States aircraft slammed into a village in the North Waziristan region

of Pakistan along the Afghan border on Friday and killed 10 to 13

people, according to a local intelligence official, a Pakistani

reporter and two Pakistani television channels.

State television put the death toll at 10, and other news reports

said the dead included eight local people and five foreigners. The

deaths were the latest fatalities in a series of American missile

attacks that have drawn increasingly irate protests from Pakistan to

senior American officials, including the head of the United States

Central Command, Gen. H. Petraeus, and the American ambassador

here, Anne W. .

The Pakistani president, Asif Ali Zardari, and the prime minister,

Yousaf Raza Gilani, both condemned Friday's attack.

Since an American commando raid on Pakistani soil in early September,

there have been reports of more than 15 American strikes directed at

militants hiding out in the Waziristan region.

The authorities accuse militants of using Waziristan as a base for

attacks both in Pakistan and against the American-led coalition

fighting an intensifying war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in

Afghanistan. But Pakistan maintains that the American strikes

undermine its own efforts to curb the violence.

Pakistani state television said the latest attack hit the village of

Kumshaam in the Razmak area of North Waziristan at 10:30 a.m. Friday.

Four missiles struck a compound and adjoining guest rooms belonging

to a local man identified as Alif Khan.

A television station said remotely guided aircraft were seen flying

over parts of North Waziristan. The strike was close to the border of

North and South Waziristan, the intelligence and television channels

said.

While the missile strikes have caused many casualties, there have

been no reports of fatalities among the most senior Qaeda and Taliban

figures.

Pakistan is a close ally of the United States, but Washington has

paid little evident heed to Pakistani leaders' demands for the

missile strikes to halt.

In late October, the Pakistani government lodged a formal protest

over the American missile attacks and told the American ambassador

that the strikes should be " stopped immediately, " the Pakistan

Foreign Ministry said at the time.

The protest came after a missile strike in South Waziristan killed 20

people, including several local Taliban commanders.

Earlier this week, General Petraeus met top Pakistani officials who

told him the airstrikes were unhelpful.

Apart from the campaign against militants in Waziristan, Pakistani

forces say they have been conducting a separate offensive in the

Bajaur region of northwest Pakistan, which also borders Afghanistan.

The militants have responded with bomb attacks, the most recent on

Thursday when suicide bombers killed at least 19 people in two

attacks on pro-government tribesmen and security forces, The

Associated Press reported.

Pir Zubair Shah reported from Islamabad, and Alan Cowell from Paris.