Intelligence officials say US missile strike kills at least 3 people in northwest Pakistan
By Munir Ahmad, APTuesday, February 16, 2010
US missile kills 3 in northwest Pakistan
ISLAMABAD — A suspected U.S. drone fired two missiles at a home in northwestern Pakistan on Wednesday, killing at least three people and wounding some others, intelligence officials said.
The attack happened in Tabbi Tool Khel village of North Waziristan, said the two officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The CIA has targeted homes, vehicles and militant hideouts in Pakistan’s volatile North and South Waziristan tribal regions since December when a bomber killed seven of its employees in Afghanistan.
Pakistan is a key ally of Washington in its war on terror, and it has publicly opposed the drone attacks, saying they undermined this Islamic nation’s sovereignty. But U.S. officials say privately that Islamabad supports the drone attacks, which have eliminated several al-Qaida operatives and local militants who are accused of targeting U.S. and Afghan forces in Afghanistan.
The latest attack came a day after U.S. and Pakistani officials said a joint CIA-Pakistani operation in the country’s southern city of Karachi had netted senior Taliban commander Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
Baradar is the Taliban’s No. 2 leader behind Afghan Taliban founder Mullah Mohammad Omar and a close associate of Osama bin Laden.
A Taliban spokesman in Afghanistan told The Associated Press that Baradar was still free, though he did not provide any evidence.
Associated Press writer Rasool Dawar from Mir Ali contributed to this report.
