Suspected U.S. Missiles Kill 3 In Pakistan

(AP)  Suspected U.S. missiles struck a Taliban compound in a northwestern Pakistan militant stronghold bordering Afghanistan on Sunday, killing three people, officials said.

The attack came a day after a suicide car bomber killed 27 people - most of them security forces - elsewhere in the northwest. A senior Taliban leader claimed responsibility for that attack, and promised more if the U.S. kept up its missile strikes in the region.

Shahab Ali Shah, the top administrative official in the South Waziristan tribal region, said five people also were wounded in Sunday's strike in the Zari Noor village area. The identities of the dead and wounded were not immediately clear.

An intelligence official confirmed the assessment that missiles were involved. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media on the record.

South Waziristan is the main stronghold of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who is believed allied with al Qaeda.

Since August, the U.S. has escalated its use of drone-fired missiles along Pakistan's lawless northwestern regions, where al Qaeda and the Taliban are believed to have hide-outs from which to plan attacks on American and NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan.

South Waziristan is a favorite target for the missiles.

The pro-Western Pakistani government has demanded an end to the strikes, saying that although they have killed several militant leaders, they also fan anti-American sentiment and violate the country's sovereignty.

Haji Gul Zaman, who lives just outside Zari Noor village, said he heard two blasts Sunday and saw plumes of smoke rising from the area. Trucks carrying Taliban fighters raced toward the scene, said Zaman. Shah said the strike also damaged several vehicles.

The suicide attack Saturday damaged about a dozen army trucks and jeeps as well as a police station at the checkpoint near the town of Hangu, said Farid Khan, a senior police official.

At least 25 members of the security forces and two civilians died, Khan told The Associated Press by phone from a hospital near the scene. Another 62 security personnel and three civilians were wounded, including the local police chief, other officials said.

Responsibility for the attack was claimed by Hakeemullah Mehsud, a Taliban commander who vowed earlier this month to carry out two suicide attacks a week to press for the withdrawal of Pakistani troops from the border region and for an end to the missile strikes.

"We are meeting our pledge. ... We will intensify our attacks if the drone strikes in the tribal areas do not stop," Mehsud told AP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

Pakistan is under intense international pressure to crack down on an increasingly integrated array of Islamist extremist groups operating on its soil.

The government has tried various tactics, including negotiations. It recently agreed to impose Islamic law in the northwest's Swat Valley and surrounding areas in exchange for peace with the Taliban there.

A hard-line cleric who mediated that deal demanded the government take meaningful steps to enforce the new system over the next month, including setting up proper appeals courts in four days. Already, a handful of judges trained in Islamic law have begun hearing cases.

"Mere announcement is not enough to enforce the system," Sufi Muhammad said at a rally of thousands of supporters in Mingora, the valley's main city.

The terms of the deal remain murky. Pakistani officials have insisted an Islamic judicial system in Swat would not echo the harsh edicts of the ousted Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan.

Muhammad said he and his supporters were not trying to challenge the government's authority. "We love Pakistan and are making sincere efforts for its betterment," he said.

The developments in Swat have alarmed U.S. and other Western leaders, who fear that nuclear-armed Pakistan could fall into the grip of militancy.

Donors including the U.S, Japan and Saudi Arabia on Friday pledged more than $5 billion to shore up Pakistan's shaky economy and pay for programs to alleviate poverty and bolster its security forces - twin tracks in a longer-term drive to dry up support for extremism.
By Associated Press Writer Nahal Toosi; AP writers Riaz Khan in Peshawar and Habib Khan in Khar contributed to this report

[noloyalisti]

Dumb, stupid, ignorant American wackos still trying to kill mosquitoes with hand grenades. So what if a bunch of women and children are killed when they have our oil under their sand.

[mysteriousjz]

"Totally inefficient. Why use the missiles when one nuclear weapon would do the trick. "

Is that the conception and goal of "Angels of Peace?" If it is then you are the biggest terrorist ever existed in the history fo this earth. I hope that the "nuke'em" crowd is only limited to uneducated, illiterate, and losers who like to project their dark souls onto others without knowing that "what goes around eventually comes around..........

[mjvwsr]

Lets see.......3 "suspected" bad guys killed using 3 missiles, which probably cost, (let's say they were the cheap K-Mart variety), $3 million each, that's $3 Mill per bad guy.

Posted by veteran71

Totally inefficient. Why use the missiles when one nuclear weapon would do the trick.

[bumpedoff1]

when obama was in that muslims school there must have been some pakistani bullys
that picked on him it sure looks he wants war with pakistan

[Evil_In_The_Eyes]

Our intelligence of the CIA is in big trouble as well.
Our liberty as American citizen hangs by a thread.
You may ask me why this is so. My response is that Obama may at any time release any memo of any agency. His decision to release these memo's now puts a freeze affect on all our agency's to protect our rights as American citizens from terrorism! Even the terrorist who would want to destroy America is laughing at us waiting for more private protection information to be revealed by Obamas signature.

[ludvig1-2009]

Not making any judgements, just wondering who was the last president of the U.S. who didn't have someone killed whether justified or not. Obama pirates, AlQueda, Bush II Al Queda, Iraqi's, Clinton - cruise missles into Afghanistan and Sudan was it? Bush I Iraq, Reagan - Panama and what was the name of that tiny island? and the Libyan MiG and the Iranian commercial airliner, Carter - I think someone in Iran was killed on a bus that came upon the helicopters in the desert during the hostage rescue attempt, Ford the Mayaguez rescue attempt, Nixon Vietnam, Johnson Vietnam, Kennedy Bay of Pigs and Vietnam, Ike WWII Cuba Bay of Pigs preplanning, Truman Hiroshima and Nagasaki (and I'm a Truman fan), FDR WWII, Hoover a couple of bonus marchers killed during protests. I'm starting to get way past my history. Who was the last president during his term that didn't have someone killed as a result of his decisions? Looks like the fewest people killed in the administrations I mentioned were both engineers, Carter and Hoover.

[mysteriousjz]

This is all cowardice!!!!!!!! It is no different from terrorist attacks. People who cant sleep fearing a drone attack are in no way apt to distinguish a bomb placed by criminals in their land or shelled from the sky by "angels of peace."-They are sufferring.

Imagine, drone attacks on your homes and neighbors by none other but self proclaimed "neu-angels of peace"... there are two sides to any story and when you hector the world with your agenda to be the only one, then you are surely breeding hatred-well called for.

[azure13]

.... then you will have to murder tens or hundreds of millions of people. It won't be easy, but the Nazis managed about six million, so maybe you can do it you can get organised properly. What methods would you recommend? Gassing and burning is rather inefficient and slow, so no doubt you've got a much better plan worked out.

By the way, how many other Americans do you think agree with your idea of the genocide of Muslims? I'm sure you're not alone, just like most Americans originally agreed with the Nazis in the 1930s.
Posted by hower4 at 7:14 AM : Apr 19, 2009
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Well, then let them get the nukes and use them in the name of jihad.

And I would like to know what the women who live under Taliban rule think.

Al Qaeda, the Taliban and others of their ilk must be snuffed out.

[azure13]

In the absence of a US government statement all news media have to say the same thing. This is because AMERICANS DON'T HAVE THE GUTS OR INTEGRITY to be honest about who they're killing and why. This isn't about the US administration, because Obama is doing exactly the same as Bush. It's because ALL AMERICANS ARE LIARS, TORTURERS AND MURDERERS OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN.
Posted by hower4 at 6:11 AM : Apr 19, 2009
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I disagree with this attack. What really needs to be done is that international forces go in there and completely eradicate the Taliban before they get their hands on the Pakistani nukes. The international community needs join together, then go in there and murder them all to get rid of this scourge forever.

[azure13]

Great, thousands more dollars in missiles to take out 3 peasant low life terrorists. Will have no effect on anything, as usual.
If we would quit wasting billions of dollars to blow stuff up, that would put a huge dent in the deficit. Disgusting.