US drones kill 21 in Pakistan missile attack
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
MISSILES fired by US drones killed 21 people, including Pakistani and Afghan Taliban fighters, yesterday in a strike targeting a religious school founded by an old friend of Osama bin Laden, intelligence officials and Pakistani villagers said.
"There were two drones and they fired three missiles," said a resident of Dandi Darpakheil, a village in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border.
A military official said a house and madrasa founded by Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani were the targets.
Haqqani is a veteran commander of the US-backed Afghan war against the Soviet invasion in the 1970s and 1980s, and his links with bin Laden go back to the late 1980s.
He is said to be in ill-health and his son, Sirajuddin, has been leading the Haqqani group.
The missile strike killed 16 people, most of them Pakistani and Afghan Taliban fighters, according to a senior intelligence officer.
"They belonged to Sirajuddin Haqqani group," said the officer, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"No foreign fighter was killed," he added, although a junior intelligence official had said earlier that Uzbek and Arab fighters had been staying in the school complex.
One of Haqqani's younger sons said his father and brother, also a fighter, were nowhere near when the attack took place.
"Haqqani and Sirajuddin were in Afghanistan at the time of the attack. They are alive," Badruddin, the commander's third son, said by telephone.
Fifteen to 20 wounded people, most of them women and children, had been taken to hospital in Miranshah.
Reuters
"There were two drones and they fired three missiles," said a resident of Dandi Darpakheil, a village in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border.
A military official said a house and madrasa founded by Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani were the targets.
Haqqani is a veteran commander of the US-backed Afghan war against the Soviet invasion in the 1970s and 1980s, and his links with bin Laden go back to the late 1980s.
He is said to be in ill-health and his son, Sirajuddin, has been leading the Haqqani group.
The missile strike killed 16 people, most of them Pakistani and Afghan Taliban fighters, according to a senior intelligence officer.
"They belonged to Sirajuddin Haqqani group," said the officer, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"No foreign fighter was killed," he added, although a junior intelligence official had said earlier that Uzbek and Arab fighters had been staying in the school complex.
One of Haqqani's younger sons said his father and brother, also a fighter, were nowhere near when the attack took place.
"Haqqani and Sirajuddin were in Afghanistan at the time of the attack. They are alive," Badruddin, the commander's third son, said by telephone.
Fifteen to 20 wounded people, most of them women and children, had been taken to hospital in Miranshah.
Reuters
Business Besides Oil
