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Pakistan claims US missiles kill 18 in Waziristan
A Pakistani security official and residents of a border region said US aircraft from Afghanistan killed 18 people, including women and children, when they fired missiles at pro-Taliban Islamists early roday.Pakistani military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said up to 14 people had been killed in several blasts in the Bajaur tribal region but said he did not know the cause. A US military spokesman in Afghanistan, Lieutenant-Colonel Jerry O'Hara, said there were no reports of US forces operating in the area. The blasts came days after Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism, lodged a strong protest with US-led forces in Afghanistan, saying cross-border firing in the nearby Waziristan area last weekend killed eight people. Residents of Bajaur, opposite Afghanistan's insurgent-troubled Kunar province, said the explosions were caused by firing from unidentified aircraft on the village of Damadola at about 3 a.m. The missiles destroyed houses of three tribesmen. Five women and five children were among 18 dead, while five people were hurt, journalist Anwar Ullah said after visiting the scene. Those killed included 13 members of the family of one tribesman, Bakhpoor Khan, he said. ''It appears the Americans suspected some foreigners or wanted people were hiding in these houses. But there have never been foreigners in this area before.'' A Pakistani intelligence official said four US aircraft had intruded into Pakistani airspace and fired four missiles. Another intelligence official said Damadola has been a stronghold of Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (Movement for the Implementation of Mohammad's Sharia Law), a pro-Taliban group banned by Pakistan in January, 2002. He said members of the group might have been involved in attacks on US-led forces in Afghanistan and the missile strikes might have been launched in retaliation. The deputy chief minister for the North West Frontier Province, adjoining Bajaur, denounced the ''unprovoked'' attack and demanded the government take up the issue with the United States. ''It was American aircraft -- who could dare do that except them?'' said Mohammad Siraj ul-Haq, from the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, an opposition Islamist alliance that rules NWFP and opposes the US presence in Afghanistan. ''It is unbearable ... I have asked my people to stay peaceful,'' he said from Dir, about 22 km from Damadola, itself 200 km northwest of Islamabad. ''It shows a failure of foreign policy.'' Nearby Waziristan has been the scene of clashes between security forces and al Qaeda militants for more than two years, but there have been no previous reports of fighting in Bajaur. In separate violence, suspected separatists in the troubled southwestern province of Baluchistan fired up to 10 rockets into an army camp east of the provincial capital, Quetta, late on Thursday, killing three soldiers, a provincial official said. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-01-13 |
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