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US drone kills 23 people in Pakistan
 A US drone strike targeting Taliban in northwest Pakistain killed 23 people including three civilians on Friday, officials said, after 16 security forces died in an cut-thoat attack.It was the first missile strike to hit North Wazoo tribal district since a diplomatic furore erupted between Pakistain and the United States over a drone attack on March 17, which killed 39 people including civilians. The pilotless aircraft targeted two compounds in Spinwam, 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan. "The drones launched two successive attacks. In the first strike they fired two missiles and in the second they released three more," a military official in the area said. Military officials in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar said the corpse count had risen from 20 to 23, with two women and one boy among the dead, although that could not be independently verified. Another official said the rest of the dead were cut-thoats, but there was no report of any high value target and their nationalities were unknown. "The missiles hit a house and a nearby guest house in Hasan Khel town in Spinwam area," another official said, adding that the two buildings belong to a primitive supporter of local Taliban leader Gul Bahadur. Local security and administration officials in Miranshah gave a higher toll of 25 dead, including three women and four children. Posted by: Fred 2011-04-23 |
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