US missile attack kills five in Pakistan

The Hindu, Saturday, November 22, 2008 : 1400 Hrs      
Islamabad (PTI):

In spite of heavy protest and even threats to shoot them down, suspected US drones on Saturday continued their missile attacks on the Pakistani soil, killing five people, most of them militants, in the country's troubled North West region.

Two missiles were fired targeting house of a tribesman in the Mirali sub-district of restive North Waziristan Agency, TV channels reported quoting officials.

Most of the dead were militants including some foreigners, the officials said.

Local Taliban cordoned off the area around the house that was targetted and did not allow people to approach it.

The attack was the latest in a series of over 20 missile strikes in Pakistan's tribal belt by US drones operating from Afghanistan in the last few weeks.

Pakistan has angrily opposed the strikes, describing them as a violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity. The US Ambassador has been summoned thrice to the Foreign Office for protests to be lodged against the missile strikes.

'US missile strike' hits Pakistan

BBC, Saturday, November 22, 2008

US missile strikes targeting militants cause resentment in Pakistan

At least five people have been killed in a suspected US missile strike on a tribal district in north-west Pakistan, security officials have said.

The attack hit (alleged Taliban fighters) in North Waziristan, near the Afghanistan border, the officials said.

There is widespread anger in Pakistan at the increasing use of missile strikes along the Afghan border.

Shahbaz Sharif, Chief Minister of the Punjab region and head of a key political party, said the US was raising tensions between Islamabad and Washington.

"This is creating anger in Pakistan. This is creating friction between our two countries," he told the AFP news agency.

'Sovereignty violated'

There were conflicting reports about exactly who was killed in the latest attack, although several reports said at least five people died.

One report suggested four of the five killed were (alleged Taliban fighters). Another said three of the five were children.

Two or three missiles were reported to have been fired from a drone aircraft, destroying a house in the village of Alikhel in North Waziristan, AFP quoted an unnamed senior security official as saying.

Pakistan has said that the missile strikes infringe its sovereignty.

On Thursday the government summoned the US ambassador in Islamabad to protest after an attack deep inside Pakistani territory killed five people a day earlier.