Drone attack in northwestern Pakistan kills 6

[August 27, 2009]  DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) -- A suspected U.S. drone attack killed at least six people and wounded another nine in northwestern Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region Thursday, intelligence officials said.

Two missiles were fired at a suspected militant hide-out in the stronghold of top Taliban commander Waliur Rehman, two intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

They said their information showed that Taliban fighters were removing the bodies from a destroyed compound.

It was not clear whether the missile strike, in the Kani Guram area of South Waziristan, targeted any particular Taliban commander. The same area was hit on Aug. 11 in an attack that killed at least eight people, intelligence officials said at the time.

It was impossible to independently verify Thursday's strike or death toll as the attack was in a remote area of the tribal region, which borders Afghanistan and is off-limits to journalists.

The United States is suspected of having launched more than 40 missile strikes from unmanned planes on al-Qaida and Taliban targets close to the Afghan border since last year, reportedly killing several top commanders -- but also civilians.

An Aug. 5 drone attack killed Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.

Thursday's missile strike came two days after Rehman and another top commander, Hakimullah Mehsud, acknowledged Baitullah Mehsud was dead. For weeks the Taliban insisted their leader was alive, but the two said Tuesday he died a few days earlier from wounds sustained after the drone attack.

In a joint telephone call to The Associated Press on Tuesday, the two commanders said the Taliban appointed Hakimullah as the group's new leader, while Rehman was appointed Taliban leader in South Waziristan, where most of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan's fighters -- believed to number as many as 25,000 -- are based.

Al-Qaida's top leaders, including Osama bin Laden, are believed to be hiding in Pakistan's mountainous border region, where there is little government or military control and militants move freely across the border into Afghanistan.

The U.S. occasionally fired missiles into the region beginning in 2006, but dramatically stepped up the attacks last year. U.S. officials rarely acknowledge the airstrikes.

The missile attacks have targeted militants behind surging attacks in Pakistan, those blamed for violence in Afghanistan, and al-Qaida and other foreign terrorists allegedly using the area to plot or train for attacks around the world.

The missiles are fired from CIA-operated drones believed to be launched from Afghanistan or from secret bases inside Pakistan. They are reported to be piloted by operatives inside the United States.

The Pakistani government publicly protests the attacks, which are unpopular among many in the Muslim country of 170 million people, many of whom see the United States and its allies as conducting an unjust war against fellow Muslims in Afghanistan.

Despite this, Islamabad is assumed to be cooperating with the strikes and providing intelligence for them.

Pakistan's government has called on Washington to provide the technology so its military can carry out the drone attacks.

[Associated Press; By ISHTIAQ MAHSUD]

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