Suspected US missile strikes kill 5 in Pakistan

[October 27, 2010]  PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) -- Suspected U.S. drones fired missiles at a house and a vehicle in a militant-infested area of northwestern Pakistan near the Afghan border Wednesday and killed five people, intelligence officials said.

The strikes were nearly 12 hours apart in the North Waziristan tribal area. They were the latest attacks in an intensifying campaign by the U.S. to use unmanned aircraft in Pakistan to wage war against militants who regularly target foreign troops in Afghanistan.

There have now been at least 19 suspected U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan this month, many of them in North Waziristan. There were 21 such attacks in September, nearly double the previous monthly record.

The first strike occurred at about 3:30 a.m. when a drone fired a missile at a house in the Spin Wam area, killing two people, said the intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The second attack occurred at around 2:45 p.m. when a drone fired a missile at a vehicle in the Datta Khel area, killing three suspected militants, said the officials.

The dead were not immediately identified. But many U.S. drone strikes in recent months have targeted fighters linked to the Haqqani network, which military officials have declared the most dangerous militant group in Afghanistan.

The U.S. refuses to publicly acknowledge that it carries out drone attacks in Pakistan, but officials have said privately that the covert CIA-run program has killed several high-level Taliban and al-Qaida commanders.

[Associated Press; By RASOOL DAWAR]

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