Pakistan: another US air-strike?

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Sat, 03/01/2008 - 00:32

Ten alleged terrorists, mostly Arabs, were killed and seven others injured in a missile strike on a house near the village Kaloosha, South Waziristan, near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan Feb. 27. A "security source" told the Italian news agency AGI the missile had been launched by US forces on Afghan territory. The house hit belonged to Sher Mohammad Malikkheil, a Pashtun known as "Sheroo" with purported links to Afghan militants. A Pakistani military spokesman, Gen. Athar Abbas, said that he had not received reports of any missile attacks. (AGI, Feb. 28)

See our last post on Pakistan.

...And another?

Submitted by Bill Weinberg on Tue, 03/18/2008 - 01:45

From Pakistan's Dawn, March 18:

WANA, March 17 — A pro-government militant commander accused the Pakistani and US forces on Monday of carrying out Sunday's missile attack on a compound of a house in the Shah Nawazkot area of South Waziristan. The attack left nine people, including some foreigners, dead.

Maulvi Nazir's spokesman Mita Khan, who won the support of the government after launching an armed campaign against Uzbek militants, termed the attack a joint operation of Pakistani and US forces.

"We believe that Pakistani security forces and Americans had carried out the attack," Mr Khan said, adding that the "Mujahideen" would soon avenge the death of their comrades.

Officials said that nine militants had been killed in the attack, while local people put the death toll at 18.

Some unconfirmed reports say that a doctor of Arab origin who frequented the compound was among the dead.