Suspected US airstrike kills 14 militants in Pakistan (Roundup)

Aug 11, 2009, 14:52 GMT

Islamabad - A suspected US missile strike Tuesday killed at least 14 militants in a troubled Pakistani tribal district near the Afghan border, intelligence officials said.

Two missiles fired from a drone struck a training camp in South Waziristan's Kani Guram village near the Ladha area, where top Pakistani Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud was reportedly killed in a similar assault last week.

The training facility was being run by a local militant leader identified as Zangi Khan Burki, an intelligence official said on condition of anonymity.

'Fourteen militants were confirmed killed while six others were wounded,' the official said, adding that the toll could be higher as a large number of Mehsud's supporters were present in the complex when it was hit.

The attack came amid claims and counterclaims about Mehsud's death in last Wednesday's drone strike that targeted the house of the warlord's father-in-law in Zangara village.

Pakistani authorities said intelligence reports suggested Mehsud was almost certainly killed along with his younger wife, but the militant commander's deputies contested the claim.

Government agencies were trying to collect 'material evidence' of Mehsud's death, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told reporters in Islamabad Tuesday.

'As soon as we receive any confirmation, we will make it public,' Malik said. Independent verification was not possible because of the inaccessibility of the remote region.

Mehsud is described as Pakistan's enemy number one and also carries a 5-million-dollar US bounty on his head for being a key facilitator of al-Qaeda in South Waziristan, a territory containing many Taliban sanctuaries.