Two drone strikes kill 12 in Waziristan

US drone

Twelve militants, some foreigners among them, were killed and another six injured in two US drone attacks in North and South Waziristan on Tuesday. A drone fired two missiles at the house of Irfan Shamankhel, son of Sher Alam Mehsud, a local commander of the banned Tehrik Taliban Pakistan in South Waziristan. The foreigners killed in the attack remained unidentified. Since the death of Baitullah Mehsud in a drone attack in August, 65 Taliban, including local and foreigners, have been killed in 10 attacks by US drones in South Waziristan. An intelligence official told Dawn that the US drones had been hovering above the Sara Rogha area since morning and a thick column of smoke started billowing from the house after the attack. The house that came under attack was reduced to ashes. Since 2004, militancy has spread across the South Waziristan Agency, reducing powers of political authorities. Officials at the office of the political agent expressed ignorance about the incident, but the intelligence official confirmed that the attack had taken place. Fears of a military operation in South Waziristan have touched off a wave of migration to adjacent Dera Ismail Khan and Tank districts. In another attack in the evening, two missiles were fired from a drone on the house of Mustafa in Dandy Darpakhel. North Waziristan. Seven militants were killed and five others injured. Local people said that militants had cordoned off the entire area and were retrieving bodies. Sources said that Mustafa was an Afghan national and had close relations with Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani. Thick smoke was seen rising from the compound. Agencies add: Unmanned drones have carried out more than 70 missile attacks in the border region over the last year, but Washington rarely acknowledges the strikes. TheUnited States says the mountainous region is a base for militant attacks on American and other Nato troops in Afghanistan and a stronghold of Al Qaeda’s senior leadership. South Waziristan has seen a spike in violence in recent days, including suicide attacks and rocket and mortar exchanges between the Taliban and the Pakistani army. The army has moved into other areas in the northwest over the last year, but has so far avoided major operations in Waziristan. Residents of Dandey Darpakhel village, the scene of the second strike, said they saw drones flying over the area for hours before the strike. ‘We heard big explosions,’ said villager Ahmad Hasan. ‘I went to the scene and saw three bodies. I also saw three or four people with serious wounds.’The village is home to a religious seminary of Al Qaeda-linked Taliban leader Siraj Haqqani. The US has accused the Haqqani network of masterminding beheadings and suicide bombings in Afghanistan.