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| Drone attack mocks Mullen’s assurance |
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Thursday, September 18, 2008
Seven perish as four missiles hit South Waziristan village
By Mushtaq Yusufzai & Irfan Burki
PESHAWAR/WANA: At least seven people were killed in a brazen drone attack in South Waziristan Agency (SWA) on Wednesday hours after top US commander Admiral Michael Mullen assured officials that American forces would respect Pakistan's sovereignty.
Reports said seven suspected militants, some of them reportedly foreigners, were killed and several others injured when two US spy planes fired four Hellfire missiles on Baghar village near Angoor Adda near the border with Afghanistan.
Senior government officials based in Wana, headquarters of SWA, told The News by telephone that they received reports of four huge explosions in the border village of Baghar in which seven people were reportedly killed and several others injured.
They said two US spy planes, which were flying over various tribal villages inhabited by the Ahmadzai Wazir tribespeople for the past 24 hours, fired missiles on the village.
Tribal residents of Angoor Adda -- a border town between SWA and Afghanistan's troubled Paktika province -- told The News that two drones were seen flying over the border villages during the missile attacks on the village.
The residents said two of the Hellfire missiles hit equal number of houses owned by local tribespeople. The villagers said both the houses were levelled to the ground in which seven people were killed and several others injured. The residents said the dead also included women and children.
Sources close to militants, led by a pro-government tribal commander Maulvi Nazeer, told The News that besides the Ahmadzai Wazir tribal militants, some foreign nationals living in Baghar and adjoining villages were also killed in the missile attack.
"Our friends were staying there for the past several months and this area was one of the secure places for mujahideen," said a militant commander, who wished not to be named. He refused to disclose nationality of the slain foreign militants.
"There are 50 per cent chances that our ammunition depot could have been destroyed in the village," said the militant commander.
Government officials said five of the victims were said to be foreign nationals, including Arabs and Turkmen.
Baghar village, which is about 50 kilometres west of Wana and six kilometres east of Angoor Adda, was previously also attacked by US drones.
The residents said an old Sra Kanda fort housing paramilitary Frontier Corps (FC) and Pakistan Army soldiers is at a distance of about a kilometre from the village but the troops as usual reportedly kept silence over flying of US drones and firing of missiles inside Pakistan.
In Shewakai Naray village, 15 kilometres of Wana, tribal militants reportedly fired shots from their heavy weapons on the drones but as usual the US spy planes remained safe.
Tribal sources feared that the death toll in the missile attack could rise as four missiles were fired on the village.
Meanwhile, in order to lodge a strong protest over repeated violations of Pakistan airspace by the US drones and carrying out airstrikes in the Ahmadzai Wazirs-inhabited areas of SWA, a grand tribal jirga of nine sub-tribes of Ahmadzai Wazirs held its meeting in Wana's main Rustam Bazaar where they raised a tribal Lashkar to defend their frontiers with Afghanistan. They threatened to scrap the peace deal with the government if it failed in stopping the US attacks.
Former JUI-F MNA from South Waziristan, Maulana Noor Mohammad chaired the jirga, where around 1,000 tribal elders and tribesmen were present.
The jirga though hailed a strong statement of Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani against the repeated US attacks on the tribal regions, the Ahmadzai Wazir tribal elders said the government was yet to stop US planes from flying over Pakistani tribal areas and carrying out airstrikes.
The jirga announced that eight million tribesmen from tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan would voluntarily fight alongside their armed forces if the US dared to attack the tribal regions.
The Ahmadzai Wazirs on the occasion announced raising a 400-member tribal Lashkar that would be deployed at the border with Afghanistan to safeguard Pakistan's frontiers against foreign forces.
Reuters adds: The missile strike that reportedly killed seven militants on Wednesday was the result of US and Pakistani intelligence sharing, a senior Pakistani official said.
"It shows improving intelligence coordination on the ground," said the official, who had knowledge of the operation and spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
