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U.S. drone aircraft kills 22 in Pakistan

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Islamabad, May 11, IRNA -- U.S. drone aircraft Tuesday fired missiles on houses and a vehicle and killed at least 22 people and injured scores others in a Pakistani tribal region near Afghan border, locals and officials in the region said.

They said on phone that drones fired volley of missiles in different locations in North Waziristan in the morning and afternoon.

The first strike was carried out in the morning at Datta Khel, some 65 kilometers west of Miranshah, the center of North Waziristan. At least 12 people were killed in the strike.

In the afternoon, drone aircraft again struck Gorowek village very close to the Afghan border and killed at least 10 people.

Witnesses said they saw blaze in the Datakhel mountainous area after the strikes and the people could not immediately rush to the site fearing more strikes. The authorities had already imposed curfew in the area which also barred the people from approaching the attack site for relief activities.

Some tribesmen in Miranshsh said on phone that labourers were working in the mountains to extract stones of the mountains when came under attack.

It is the second U.S strike in the same region in two days and third this month.

On Sunday, U.S. drone aircraft fired missiles at a house and killed at least 10 people. Also on May 3, U.S unmanned Predator aircraft killed six people.

Tribesmen said spy planes were hovering over the region and making low flights before the attack.

U.S authorities claim drone aircraft target militants on intelligence passed on by their agents in the area. Militants allege that Pakistani authorities also provide information for drone attacks.

U.S. drone attacks routinely target Taliban and al-Qaeda commanders in Pakistan’s lawless tribal regions along the Afghanistan border. The U.S officials say that Taliban and al-Qaeda running training centers in the region where they also plan attacks against the U.S-led forces across the border into Afghanistan

Opposition parties and some analysts say Pakistan publicly opposes the attacks but it is believed that it was sharing intelligence with the U.S. about the insurgents and their hide-outs in the tribal regions.

More than 900 people have been killed in more than 90 U.S. strikes in Pakistan since August 2008, with a surge in the past year as President Barack Obama has put Pakistan at the heart of his fight against Al-Qaeda.

The U.S. has stepped up strikes in North Waziristan after Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud appeared in a video with Hammam Khalil Al-Balawi, the Jordanian suicide bomber who killed seven CIA operatives in a forward base in Afghanistan’s Khost province in December last year.