A Pakistani Taliban commander accused of launching cross-border attacks in Afghanistan was among 20 people killed in a suspected U.S. missile strike, a senior official said Monday. The commander, Haji Omar Khan, died when at least two missiles slammed into a training camp in the South Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border on Sunday night, local administration official Mawaz Khan told AFP. "The death toll has gone up to 16 as six more bodies have been recovered from the site. Senior Taliban commander Haji Omar died in the strike," Khan said.
Another government official quoting local sources said up to 20 people were killed, mostly Pakistani Taliban fighters, adding that a team was on its way to the area to investigate.
| The slain commander was a senior member of the group of veteran Taliban chieftain Jalaluddin Haqqani, residents added. Many of the recent U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan have targeted Haqqani and his followers. |
Suspected U.S. drones have carried out more than a dozen such missile attacks on militant targets on the Pakistani side of its border with Afghanistan since the beginning of September, killing dozens of people.
"Two missiles were fired, they hit two houses in Shakai and up to 20 militants were killed," said one of the Pakistani intelligence agency officials, referring to an area in the South Waziristan region that is a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.
Mehsud is Pakistan's most notorious militant commander, blamed for a string of suicide bomb attacks in Pakistan including the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December last year. He also supports Taliban militants battling U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan.
A bit more detail, from Pak Daily Times
Muhammad Omar, a commander of Taliban leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, was among the 20 men killed in Sunday's suspected US missile strike in South Waziristan, officials said. Two lower-level commanders -- Waheedullah and Nasrullah -- and five Taliban from North Waziristan who had come to meet Omar also died.
Omar was active in attacks on US-led and NATO troops in Afghanistan's Khost, Paktia and Paktika provinces. He was a cousin of Taliban commander Nek Muhammad who was killed in 2004 in the first such US missile strike. A Taliban leader told Reuters by telephone the strikes were 'very accurate'. "The missiles struck rooms where the guests were having dinner. None survived."