A suspected US missile strike killed a purported foreign militant in a Pakistani tribal area considered a haven for the Taliban and al-Qaeda, while a suicide bombing left four security personnel dead, officials said.
In a sign of how violence and economic problems are shaking confidence in the nuclear-armed country, Pakistan’s currency slumped to an all-time low against the US dollar on Thursday.
The missile strike hit a house in the South Waziristan region of Pakistan’s border belt, considered a likely hiding place for al-Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri.
Two Pakistani intelligence officials said that reports from informants and field agents suggested one foreign militant died in the attack and that another foreigner was injured.
Asked if any al-Qaeda leaders had been hit, the officials said that Arabs had been living in the house but the identities of the victims were not yet clear. They said foreign and Pakistani militants had frequented the house in a remote, forested area since its owner fled the tribal region last year.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media on the record.
US military and CIA drones that patrol the frontier region are believed to have carried out at least a dozen missile strikes against suspected militant targets since August.
The US rarely confirms or denies involvement in the attacks, which have intensified amid frustration in Washington at the escalating insurgency in neighboring Afghanistan.
With Pakistan’s army also stepping up operations in its volatile northwest, militants have responded with a sequence of bloody suicide attacks, including last month’s truck bombing of Islamabad’s Marriott Hotel.
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