South Asia News

US missile strike kills 12 in Pakistan

Jan 17, 2010, 8:00 GMT

Islamabad - A suspected US missile strike killed at least 12 people in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border on Sunday, an intelligence official said.

Missiles believed to be fired by a US-operated pilotless aircraft struck a compound in the Shaktoi area, 35 kilometers southeast of the region's main town of Miranshah.

'We have reports that at least 12 people have died and several more injured,' the intelligence official said.

Identities of those killed in the raid could not be confirmed immediately.

Sunday's strike was the latest in a series of US drone attacks that picked up pace after a Jordanian double agent crossed into Afghanistan from the tribal badlands and struck a US intelligence centre, killing seven agents.

In a video message aired last week, Jordanian attacker Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi sat beside Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mesud.

A US airstrike flattened a compound, previously used to house a seminary in the Shaktoi area on Thursday, killing at least a dozen militants.

After rumours that the Taliban chief was hit in the strike, Mehsud released at least two audio messages in as many days, stressing that he was 'alive and in good health.'