Deadly drone attacks kill 61 in 24 hours Foreign, Punjabi militants among dead

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http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=7377 & Cat=13 & dt=7/13/2011

Deadly drone attacks kill 61 in 24 hours Foreign, Punjabi militants among dead

Malik Mumtaz & Irfan Burki

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

MIRAMSHAH/WANA: Twenty-four more people, including local and foreign militants,

were killed and nine others injured in three separate drone attacks in South

Waziristan and North Waziristan on Tuesday. Some news agencies and private

television channels reported that the death toll in the drone strikes during the

last 24 hours had reached 61.

Tribal sources in South and North Waziristan, where the government in the past

signed peace accords with local Taliban leaders and tribes, reported an

unprecedented rise in flights by the US spy planes. Official and tribal sources

said in the first attack, a drone fired seven missiles at suspected hideouts of

militants in the Malik Shahi village in Birmal Tehsil of South Waziristan near

the border with Afghanistan's Paktika province.

Eight people, mostly local and foreign militants, were killed in the attack.

Tribal sources said the drone pounded a house where a group of Punjabi Taliban

and tribal fighters were residing. There were also reports that some foreign

fighters were among the dead and wounded. Tribal sources said some Arab

nationals were present in the house during the attack. There was no immediate

information about the nationality of the foreign militants.

Another 16 people, some of them stated to be tribal militants, were killed and

nine others injured in two different missile attacks by the CIA-operated US

drones in North Waziristan. Tribal sources said a drone fired six missiles,

hitting a house in Dre Nishtar area in the mountainous Shawal valley in North

Waziristan. There were reports that a group of tribal militants was staying in

the house.

A house and two double-cabin pickup trucks were reportedly destroyed while

another house located near the suspected compound of the militants was partially

damaged in the attack. Tribesmen claimed that local villagers were killed and

injured in the attack in Shawal valley.

In another attack, a drone fired two missiles, hitting a car in the Neway Adda

village of Dattakhel area near the Afghan border. Both official and tribal

sources said a local villager driving his personal car came under drone attack.

Villagers said only body parts of the tribesman were collected from the spot of

the attack.

This was the fourth attack during the past 24 hours by US spy planes in

Pakistan's tribal areas. Earlier, US drones on Monday night fired 12 missiles at

two houses and killed 25 militants in the Gorweek area of North Waziristan near

the Afghan border. Pakistani security officials and Taliban sources said the

drones had fired 12 missiles at a large compound and two pickup trucks,

reportedly used by the Afghan Taliban and their foreign guest fighters.