Missiles kill at least eight in northwestern Pakistan

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Missiles kill at least eight in northwestern Pakistan

Written by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Tuesday, 23 December 2008

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - Suspected U.S. missile strikes killed at

least eight people Monday in volatile northwest Pakistan, officials

and witnesses said.

Bakht Janan, a local security official at a check post, said an

unmanned drone aircraft began circling over the village of Kari Khel

around 3 a.m., then fired missiles at two vehicles several hours

later. Witnesses told The Associated Press that one of the vehicles

had been blasting away with an anti-aircraft gun at the drone.

Four people were killed as missiles hit the vehicle and an adjacent,

fortlike house, while four others died and one was injured in the

second vehicle eight kilometres away by dirt track.

Janan said an unexploded missile was found on the ground near the

first vehicle.

Yar Mohammad, a villager, said local Taliban pulled out bodies from

the rubble while cordoning off the scene about 15 kilometres south of

Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal area near the

Afghan border.

The U.S. has carried out a series of more than 30 missile strikes

since August in Pakistan's lawless, semiautonomous tribal areas,

targeting al-Qaida and Taliban militants blamed for attacks in

Afghanistan. While the missile strikes have killed scores of

militants, Pakistani officials have criticized them as an

infringement of its sovereignty and say they undermine their own war

on terror.

Most of the missiles are believed to have been launched from unmanned

spy planes that take off from Afghanistan. Washington rarely confirms

or denies the attacks.