Two US drone-fired missiles levelled a Taliban compound in South Waziristan on Sunday killing three people, officials said. "It was a drone attack," local administration official Shahab Ali Shah told AFP. The official said the missiles hit a house in Gangi Khel area on the outskirts of Wana, the main town of South Waziristan Agency.Another official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the attack targeted a Taliban hideout. Five others were wounded, the official added. "There was no immediate report of any high-value targets."
Residents said the attack flattened the compound and destroyed a vehicle parked nearby.
"My Beemer! You bastards!"
"It was a fortress-type house owned by local tribesman Muhammad Wali, there were about a dozen rooms," his neighbour Roshan Khan told AFP.
One missile hit a 'Shashpai', or six-wheeler truck, which was apparently loaded with explosives, he said. "The truck exploded with a loud bang and the smell of explosives filled the area," he said. "I am standing 500 metres away but the smell is intolerable."
Khan said he saw no casualties and Taliban who had surrounded the house gave no figure. Haji Gul Zaman, who lives just outside Zari Noor village, told the Associated Press he heard two blasts and saw plumes of smoke rising from the area.
Trucks carrying Taliban raced toward the scene, Zaman said. But Reuters quoted local residents as saying the compound was empty as the Taliban had left it hours before the strike. "The drones were flying last night and we saw those living in the house leaving in the dark," said villager Kaleem Wazir.
South Waziristan is a stronghold of Pakistan's top Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud, who recently threatened to avenge missile strikes with attacks across the country and in the United States.