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| India-Pakistan |
| Friday's US missile strike killed 12 in Wazoo HUJI camp |
| 2008-09-14 |
| Another CIA-operated spy plane intruded into Pakistan's territory in North Waziristan Agency early Friday and fired two Hellfire missiles. Senior government officials based in Miramshah told The News that the Predator had attacked an alleged training camp of militants from the Punjab. The officials claimed that all the 12 people who were killed in the attack were hardcore militants belonging to Jihadi commander Ilyas Kashmiri's group. The residents, however, claimed the dead included women and children. Ilyas belongs to the Pak branch of HUJI. Soon after the missile strike, some unidentified miscreants attacked a military convoy, which was on its way to Bannu from Miramshah near the Chashma Pul, injuring two security personnel. In retaliation, the troops also fired shots at the attackers, wounding four tribesmen who were travelling in a passenger coach.Tribal sources told The News that two spy planes had been flying over the villages of North Waziristan Agency along the Pak-Afghan border for the past 24 hours. The residents said one of the planes, apparently a US Predator, fired two Hellfire missiles on a house owned by a tribesman Sadim Khan in Tolkhel village, two kilometres east of Miramshah. The residents, who immediately reached the spot for rescue work, said they had recovered 12 bodies. According to the villagers, all of the dead were local residents belonging to Sadim Khan's family. The sources said the missile attack also damaged some other adjoining houses in the village, seriously injuring 10 people. The injured were rushed to various hospitals of Miramshah. However, senior government officials based in Miramshah told The News that the Predator had attacked an alleged training camp of militants from the Punjab. The officials claimed that all the 12 people who were killed in the attack were hardcore militants belonging to Jihadi commander Ilyas Kashmiri's group. They confirmed that a US Predator had fired two missiles at the school building that was being used by the militants.The officials said some tribesmen living near the alleged training centre were also killed and injured in the attack. Sources close to the tribal militants operating in the NWA denied reports that the school building hit by the US spy plane was a training centre and those killed were militants."Every time after the US attack, the government people exaggerate casualties and play up the importance of the victims," said a tribal militant commander based in Miramshah, who wished not to be named. It was the second attack in one week by the US planes in North Waziristan Agency. In an earlier attack carried out by the US Predator on one of the houses of veteran Afghan Taliban commander, Maulvi Jalaluddin Haqqani, on Monday at Danday Darpakhel village near Miramshah, 25 people were killed and several others were injured. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Could be both, Glenmore. |
| Posted by: Deacon Blues 2008-09-14 15:29 |
| #1 What's the blast radius of a Hellfire? Ours seem to be unusully powerful in NWFT - can destroy a school and damage buildings around it, killing and wounding their occupants. Either that or unusually shoddy construction. (sarc) |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2008-09-14 09:04 |