Suspected US missile strike kills 20 in Pakistan
A suspected US missile strike by a drone aircraft flattened a militant hide-out in north-western Pakistan today, killing 20 local and foreign insurgents, intelligence officials said.
At least 15 more purported militants were wounded in the attack in South Waziristan, a militant stronghold near the Afghan border where al-Qaida leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri are believed to be hiding.
The new US administration has brushed off Pakistani protests that the missile strikes fuel religious extremism and boost anti-American sentiment in the Islamic world's only nuclear-armed nation.
Pilotless US aircraft are believed to have launched more than 30 attacks since July, and American officials say al-Qaida's leadership has been significantly weakened. Pakistani officials say the vast majority of the dead are civilians.
Taliban fighters surrounded the compound targeted today in the village of Shrawangai Nazarkhel and carried away the dead and wounded in several vehicles.
The intelligence officials said the victims included several foreigners but said their agents had yet to establish their names or nationalities.
Two of the officials said dozens of followers of Pakistan's top Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, were staying in the housing compound when it was hit.
Pakistan's former government and the CIA have named Mehsud as the prime suspect behind the December 2007 killing of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto near Islamabad. Pakistani officials accuse him of training suicide bombers.
Pakistani leaders told visiting American envoy Richard Holbrooke earlier this week that the missile strikes kill too many civilians and undermine the government's own counterinsurgency strategy.
Still, many analysts suspect that Pakistan has tacitly consented to the attacks in order not to endanger badly needed American and Western financial support for its ailing economy.
