DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan, June 11, (Agencies): A volley of US missiles killed 15 alleged militants in an extremist stronghold in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, the second such strike in less than 12 hours, officials said.
The Obama administration regards missile attacks from drone aircraft as a key weapon against al-Qaida and the Taliban close to the Afghan border. Earlier this month, al-Qaida’s reputed No. 3 official, Mustafa al-Yazid, was killed in a similar strike in the North Waziristan region.
Six missiles were fired in Friday’s attack on a house in a village close to the border, two intelligence officers said. They were not authorized to give their names.
Yousaf Khan, a government administrator in the region’s main town of Miran Shah, said 15 alleged militants were killed.
He said officers were still gathering information about the identities of the victims.
Late Thursday, two people were killed in another strike in North Waziristan. Officials did not say whether they were believed to be militants.
Pakistan is under pressure to launch a military offensive in the region, but the army says it is too stretched and committed to other parts of the border region to do so anytime soon. There have been more than 35 suspected missile strikes this year alone, the highest tempo since the attacks began in earnest in 2008.
The attacks have killed many hundreds of people, most identified by Pakistani officials after the strikes as suspected militants. There have also been many accounts of civilian deaths. Washington does not acknowledge firing the missiles, let alone say who they are killing.
Critics say the attacks may violate international law and amount to extrajudicial killings. Pakistan’s government publicly opposes the strikes to prevent domestic critics from accusing it of conspiring with United States in killing its own citizens. But it is widely believed to provide intelligence assistance for at least some of the strikes.
The drones either take off from bases across the border in Afghanistan or reportedly from secret bases within Pakistan.
On June 1, Al-Qaeda said its number three leader and Osama bin Laden’s one-time treasurer Mustafa Abu al-Yazid had been killed, in what security officials said was an apparent drone strike in North Waziristan.
Washington has branded the rugged tribal area a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and officials say it is home to Islamist extremists who hatch attacks on US-led troops in Afghanistan and on cities abroad.
Waziristan came under renewed scrutiny when Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American charged over an attempted bombing in New York on May 1, allegedly told US interrogators he went there for bomb training.
The United States has been increasing pressure on Pakistan to crack down on Islamist havens along the Afghan border.
Pakistani commanders have not ruled out an offensive in North Waziristan, but argue that gains in South Waziristan and the northwestern district of Swat need to be consolidated to prevent their troops from being stretched too thin.
Last week, a UN human rights expert warned that the “prolific” use of US drone attacks amounted to “a licence to kill without accountability” and was setting a damaging example that other countries would follow.
In a report to the UN Human Rights Council, Philip Alston sharply criticised the legal arguments used to justify them, their civilian toll and the involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).