Thursday, October 27, 2011

Suspected U.S. drone strikes kills 9 people

Islamabad, Pakistan (CNN) -- Two suspected U.S. drone strikes killed nine people Thursday in Pakistan's tribal region, officials said, less than a week after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the nation.

One strike killed four suspected militants when a suspected U.S. drone fired four missiles on a hideout in the Mir Ali area of North Waziristan, Pakistani intelligence officials told CNN.

Another suspected U.S. drone fired five missiles at a vehicle in neighboring South Waziristan, killing five senior members of the anti-American group Mullah Nazir, which has links to the Haqqani network but is known to have no grudge with Pakistan, intelligence sources said.

The intelligence officials asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

The attack in South Waziristan took place in the Azam Warsak area near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, said Javed Marwat, a government official.

Azam Warsak was the site of the first military offensive by Pakistani forces against militants in 2002, an operation said to have given birth to what is now the Pakistan Taliban.

North Waziristan and South Waziristan are two of the seven districts of Pakistan's volatile tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

The attacks took place a week after Clinton's whirlwind visit, in which she urged Pakistan to establish "concrete steps" to battle the Haqqani network.

U.S. officials rarely discuss the CIA's drone program in Pakistan, though privately, they have said the covert strikes are legal and an effective tactic in the fights against extremists.


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