A missile strike by a suspected US drone killed at least four militants early yesterday in a northwestern Pakistani tribal district known as a stronghold of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, officials said.
An al-Qaeda operative was among those killed in the strike 15km from the town of Marali, amid Taliban militant warnings of revenge attacks across Pakistan for the strikes.
“The strike destroyed a militant hideout in the village of Alikhel in North Waziristan,” a senior security official who declined to be named said.
Local officials said the missiles struck the house of a local tribesman, while a security official said the house was used as a hideout for Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.
The latest strike came shortly after Taliban militants based in the rugged tribal territory bordering Afghanistan warned of reprisal attacks across Pakistan if there were more suspected strikes by the US.
Earlier this week a major Arab al-Qaeda operative was among six militants killed in another suspected US missile strike in northwest Pakistan, the latest in a line of attacks.
Abdullah Azam al-Saudi, a senior member of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s network, had been identified by US intelligence as the main link between al-Qaeda’s senior command and Taliban networks in the Pakistani border region.
Bin Laden is also widely believed to be hiding in the rugged region, although there is no clear information about his whereabouts.
Washington has seemingly stepped up its missile strikes on the region since March, when a civilian government took over from Pakistani General Pervez Musharraf, who turned Pakistan into a close US ally in the “war on terror.”
Recent strikes against suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban hideouts, all blamed on unmanned CIA drones, have come despite warnings from Pakistan that such attacks violate international law and could deepen resentment of the US in the world’s second-largest Islamic nation.
Pakistan has officially protested to the US that strikes violate its sovereign territory, although some officials say there was a tacit understanding between the two militaries to allow such action.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari recently promised zero tolerance against violations of his country’s sovereignty.
Meanwhile, the chief minister of Pakistan’s most populous province called yesterday for Washington to stop aerial missile strikes on the nation’s soil.
Shahbaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab and the president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party, said the strikes targeting al-Qaeda and Taliban militants were only stoking tensions with Washington’s “war on terror” ally.
Sharif, the brother of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, said in an interview: “This is creating anger in Pakistan. This is creating friction between our two countries.”
“I hope there’s no further tension and escalation of friction, but no sovereign country can allow this to happen,” he said. “Pakistan is a sovereign, independent country and our territory, our independence cannot be flouted.”
Sharif said he hoped the incoming administration of US president-elect Barack Obama would stop such strikes and help reduce the current tensions with the Zardari government.
“President-elect Obama taking over the reins next January should result in better understanding of Pakistan’s problems and difficulties and sensitivities and should result in better cohesion between the two countries,” he said.
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