Suspected US strike kills 11 near Afghan border
Suspected US strike kills 11 near Afghan border
Miranshah, Pakistan: Suspected US spy drones fired missiles early on Thursday into a school set up by a top Taliban commander in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan, killing 11 people, security officials said.
The strike targeted a village in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border where Jalaluddin Haqqani, an old friend of Osama Bin Laden, had established a madrasa or religious school. Haqqani's extended family used to live there.
"A large number of militants are rushing towards the area in vehicles," a witness said by telephone from Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan.
Zardad Khan, a villager, later said four people were killed and three wounded in the attack. "They were all local people."
US forces, frustrated over growing cross-border militant attacks from the Pakistani side, have carried out around a dozen missile strikes and a commando raid in Pakistani tribal areas since the start of September.
Three missiles
The school was currently run by one of Haqqani's own commanders, Mullah Mansoor, and was recently used as a guest house for "international and local students travelling from other areas".
"At 2.25 am, two spy drones fired three missiles at the madrassa of Mullah Mansoor. Eleven people have been killed in the missile strike," a security official said. "Locals are still looking for more people in the rubble," he said.
A similar missile strike targeting another house owned by Haqqani on September 8 killed 23 people, including members of Haqqani's extended family, security officials said.
Haqqani was one of the most prominent Afghan commanders who fought the Red Army between 1978 and 1989. He subsequently became close to Mullah Omar, the leader of the 1996-2001 Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
Since the fall of the Taliban, Haqqani has become one of the most active Taliban commanders launching attacks on international forces in Afghanistan from safe havens in Pakistan, security officials said.
The Pakistani army said it was gathering details about an "incident" in North Waziristan. "Details are being gathered about the exact number of casualties," chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said.
Residents said that all of the victims were local tribesmen, adding that locals had fired at two suspected US drones hovering above.
Fast facts: Who is Haqqani?
- A gaunt, ethnic Pashtun with a long beard and, in the few photographs of him, always seen wearing a large turban, Haqqani is in his 70s. He won recognition as a rugged commander during the Afghan jihad against Soviet occupiers in the 1980s.
- Haqqani's speciality was cave fighting in Afghanistan's inhospitable mountain ranges near the Pakistani border. He commanded mujahideen, or holy warriors, in the eastern Khost region from a nearly unassailable base in caves that later became a training ground for Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaida network.
- Haqqani had close links with US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Pakistani intelligence services, notably the military's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), during the war against the Soviets.
- The New York Times reported in July that the CIA had given Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani evidence of the ISI's continued involvement with Haqqani.
- After the Taliban captured Kabul in 1996, Haqqani threw his support behind the hardline Islamic movement and became Minister for Borders and Tribal Areas. A month after the September 11, 2001, Al Qaida attacks on the United States, he visited Pakistan, raising hopes of a split in Taliban ranks. But Haqqani remained loyal to the Taliban and has not been seen in public since then.
- Reuters
