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Dera Ismail Khan, Pakistan: The latest in a barrage of suspected US missile strikes in Pakistan's northwest has killed five people, but none are believed to be foreign Al Qaida fighters, officials said yesterday.
Two unmanned drones were seen above the town of Miran Shah in the North Waziristan tribal region minutes before missiles hit a house near a matchbox factory on Saturday, two intelligence officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media. They said reports from local informants said there were no foreigners among the dead.
Meanwhile, clashes with paramilitary forces reportedly killed 27 suspected militants in the nearby Orakzai tribal region where a suicide bomber killed dozens of anti-Taliban tribesmen on Friday.
Pakistan's Frontier Corps in a vague, two-sentence press release yesterday said its paramilitary troops had clashed with militants in Orakzai, killing 27 of the alleged insurgents including two "important commanders".
The statement also said a dozen of the dead were alleged suicide bombers.
Frontier Corps officials could not immediately be reached for more details.
Bunkers shelled
Also yesterday, security forces waging an offensive in the Bajur tribal region killed at least 25 more suspected militants, government official Jamil Khan said.
Khan told the AP that helicopter gunships shelled militants' bunkers overnight in the Charmang area of Bajur, killing at least 10 people. Throughout the day yesterday, 15 more suspected militants were killed in the clashes, he said.
Insurgents in the area were fighting a local tribal militia formed to rid the area of militants. Two local tribesmen also were killed, Khan said.
Al Qaida, a mainly Arab terror network, and the Taliban, which has both Afghan and Pakistani components, have established bases in Pakistan's northwest tribal regions, where they are said to plan attacks on US and Nato forces across the border in Afghanistan.
Under US pressure, Pakistan has carried out military offensives against insurgents while also trying to persuade various tribes to turn against extremists. The military has said its two-month-old offensive in Bajur has killed more than 1,000 insurgents.
Impatience
But the US has recently signalled its impatience with Pakistani efforts by apparently staging several cross-border assaults.
The latest strike brings to at least 12 the number of cross-border missile attacks believed carried out by the US since mid-August.
More than 100 people, most of them alleged militants, have been killed, according to figures provided to the AP by Pakistani intelligence officials.
The United States rarely confirms or denies the attacks.
Pakistani leaders routinely criticise the strikes as violations of sovereignty, but those protests have had little tangible effect on the two nations' anti-terror alliance.
Insight: Arms across border
The head of Pakistan's interior ministry said on Friday that militants fighting the security forces in the country's tribal areas were getting arms from Afghanistan across the common border.
Rehman Malek, who was speaking to a gathering in Lahore, did not identify those providing weapons to the militant groups. He said the army operations against the militants in the Bajaur tribal district and other parts were proceeding well with support of local tribesmen.
He said tribesmen were participating in the campaign to root out the militants and the government's writ would be fully established across the tribal areas soon.
Malek, who is also an advisor to the prime minister, said some 42 would-be suicide bombers and their handlers had so far been arrested from different areas of the country.
- Shahid Hussain, Correspondent
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