Pakistani officials say suspected US missiles kill 4 in northwestern Pakistan

Officials: US missiles kill 4 in NW Pakistan

MIR ALI, Pakistan — Suspected U.S. missiles struck a vehicle carrying militants in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, killing four alleged insurgents, intelligence officials said.

The strike occurred in the Anbar Shaga area of North Waziristan tribal region near the border with Afghanistan.

North Waziristan is home to a number of militant organizations bent on fighting U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, and the U.S. has relied heavily on drone-fired missiles to take out top al-Qaida and other militant leaders using the tribal region as a sanctuary.

At least three suspected militants also were wounded in Wednesday’s strike, said the Pakistani officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record. The militants had apparently stopped the car to say their prayers.

The exact identities of the wounded and killed were not immediately known.

Anbar Shaga is part of the stronghold of Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a militant commander who has been involved in attacking Western forces across the border.

Pakistan has struck a deal with Bahadur, effectively saying it will leave him alone if he stays out of the way as Islamabad wages an army offensive against the Pakistani Taliban in the South Waziristan region.

There have been some concerns that repeated missile strikes on Bahadur’s territory could imperil that deal.

The U.S. and Pakistan are allies in the battle against extremism, but Pakistan has publicly protested the missile strikes as violations of its sovereignty. Still, it is believed to provide intelligence for at least some of the strikes, including those that take out commanders of the Pakistani Taliban, a militant network that stages attacks across Pakistan.

The U.S. rarely acknowledges the covert missile program, but American officials have in the past confirmed that it has eliminated several top al-Qaida and Pakistani Taliban leaders.