U.S. Drone Kills 25 as Taliban Attack on Pakistan Forces Leaves 16 Dead
U.S. drones fired 10 missiles at a house in a Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border on Friday, killing at least 25 people, Pakistani intelligence officials said, while 16 security forces died in Taliban ambushes elsewhere in the frontier region.
The strike came a day after Pakistan's army chief denounced such attacks, and could further sour already deteriorating relations between Washington and Islamabad.
Also Friday, hundreds of militants attacked a checkpoint in a northwest Pakistani district along the border overnight and into the morning hours, killing 16 security troops, officials said — a show of insurgents' continued strength despite army offensives against them.
The latest U.S. missiles hit Spinwam village in North Waziristan, a tribal region home to Islamist militants that target American and NATO troops in Afghanistan. The three intelligence officials said civilians were believed to be among the dead, and that several people also were wounded. The reported death toll was relatively high for an American missile strike.
"U.S. drones fired five missiles on a compound in Spinwam, 40 kilometers northeast of Miranshah," said a local intelligence official. Miranshah is the main town in North Waziristan tribal district.
"Several people were also wounded in the attack," he said, adding the incident took place before dawn.
Most drone attacks have been in North Waziristan, the most notorious Afghan Taliban and al-Qaida bastion in Pakistan, where the United States wants the Pakistan military to launch a ground offensive as soon as possible.
Pakistan says its troops are too overstretched to launch such an assault.
The strikes inflame anti-U.S. feeling, which is already running high after the January killing of two Pakistani men in a busy Lahore Street by a U.S. embassy official later revealed to be working for the CIA.
Last month's U.S. drone attack led Pakistani civilian and military leaders to publicly protest the civilian casualties, although the drone campaign is believed to operate with the tacit consent of the government.
Islamabad offered compensation to the families of the 39 victims and called the U.S. ambassador to the foreign ministry to formally protest the incident.
Missile attacks doubled last year, with more than 100 drone strikes killing over 670 people in 2010 compared with 45 strikes that killed 420 in 2009, according to an Agence France Presse tally.
American drones resumed attacks in Pakistan on April 13 for the first time in nearly a month, targeting fighters from the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network in South Waziristan near the Afghan border.
That strike came one day after a Washington meeting between Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, the chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency, and Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, which runs the drone war.
On Thursday army Chief General Kayani issued a statement that said drones "not only undermine our national effort against terrorism but also turn public support against our efforts".
Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, on a trip to Islamabad this week accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency of having ties with the Afghan Taliban in Pakistan's northwest tribal belt.
The White House also criticized Pakistan's efforts to defeat the Taliban operating on the border in a report this month that was rejected by Islamabad.