American drones kill 21 in Pakistan missile attack

Miranshah: Missiles fired by US drones killed 21 people, including Pakistani and Afghan Taliban fighters, on Monday in a strike targeting a religious school founded by an old friend of Osama Bin Laden, intelligence officials and Pakistani villagers said.

A military official said a house and madrasa founded by Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani were the targets. Haqqani is a veteran commander of the US-backed anti-Soviet Afghan war in the 1970s and 1980s.

He is said to be in ill-health and his son, Sirajuddin, has been leading the Haqqani group.

The missile strike killed 16 people, most of them Pakistani and Afghan Taliban fighters, though four women and two children were also killed.

One of Haqqani's younger sons said his father and brother, also a militant, were nowhere near when the attack took place.