US drone kills at least 45 alleged Pakistani Taliban fighters, June 23, 2009

Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

Editor's Note:

In the past, many Pakistani civilians were killed in similar air strikes despite initial report of only "militants" killed.

U.S. drone kills at least 45 alleged Pakistani Taliban fighters in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) –

June 23, 2009, 2:00 pm ET

A U.S. drone attacked alleged Pakistani Taliban fighters in Pakistan in Tuesday, killing at least 45 of them, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

The alleged Pakistani Taliban fighters were meeting after a funeral in the South Waziristan region, a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

(Reporting by Robert Birsel; Editing by Sophie Hares)

'Suspected US strike kills six militants in Pak'

Tue Jun 23, 2009, 8:16 am ET

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) –

A suspected US missile strike killed six alleged Pakistani Taliban fighters in a Pakistani tribal region Tuesday, where security forces are poised for an attack on a Taliban commander, officials said.

"A missile attack by a suspected US drone took place in rugged mountainous terrain in Neej Narai in South Waziristan," said a Pakistani security official who did not want to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.

He said the drone fired three missiles, adding that six alleged Pakistani Taliban fighters were killed and seven others wounded in the attack.

Another security official confirmed the incident and casualties, saying that the missiles destroyed a compound, a bunker and two vehicles of the alleged Pakistani Taliban fighters.

It was not immediately known whether there was any high value target present in the area at the time of attack.

Neej Narai is on the outskirts of Makeen village, 60 kilometres (37 miles) northeast of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan. It is a known stronghold of most-wanted Pakistan Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.

The US military does not, as a rule, confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy unmanned drones in the region.

The attack came hours after Qari Zainuddin, a tribal leader aligned against Mehsud, was shot dead in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan.

Pakistan publicly opposes the US strikes, saying they violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among the populace. Since August 2008, more than 40 such strikes have killed nearly 400 people.

Pakistani troops are wrapping up a nearly two-month-long battle to dislodge Pakistani Taliban fighters from three northwest districts, and the military has said it will open up a second front in the tribal regions to track down Mehsud.

But analysts have said the tribal areas present a far greater challenge, with Mehsud's fighters -- believed to number up to 20,000 -- entrenched in the hostile mountainous terrain and able to slip into Afghanistan.

A senior US defence official said earlier this month that any operation in South Waziristan would work best with "pressure on both sides of the border."

About 90,000 foreign troops -- most of them from the United States -- are currently deployed in Afghanistan to battle the Taliban (resistance movement).

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