MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, June 19, (RTRS): A US drone aircraft fired two missiles in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region on the Afghan border on Saturday, killing 12 militants, intelligence officials said. The missile attack took place hours after the US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, landed in Islamabad for talks as part of the Pakistan-US strategic dialogue initiated in March. The drone targeted a suspected militant compound in Sokhel village, about 25 km (16 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town of the region and known as a hotbed of Taleban and al-Qaeda militants, the intelligence officials said. “Twelve militants have been killed and three wounded in the attack on a compound which is linked to Taleban and al-Qaeda,” one intelligence official told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

A second intelligence official confirmed the account. A resident, Mohammad Rafiq, told Reuters he had seen 11 bodies. The nationalities of the dead were not immediately available. The United States has stepped up missile strikes in Pakistan’s northwestern region since a Jordanian suicide bomber killed seven CIA employees at a US base across the border in Afghanistan’s eastern Khost province in December.

Most of this year’s attacks have been in North Waziristan. Al-Qaeda’s number three, Sheikh Sa’ad al-Masri, also known as Mustafa Abul al-Yazid, was believed to have been killed in a similar strike in North Waziristan last month. Local government official Noor Mohammad said at least 13 people had been killed, while the intelligence officials said some foreigners were among the dead. Their exact identities and nationalities were not immediately clear.

The US frequently uses missile strikes to take out Taleban and al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan’s northwest, especially the lawless tribal regions where many insurgents hide. This year, the vast majority of the missile strikes have landed in North Waziristan, a segment of the tribal belt that houses several militant groups that focus on attacking Western troops across the border in Afghanistan.

Pakistan publicly protests the strikes as violations of its sovereignty, and the attacks are deeply unpopular among the Pakistani people. But Islamabad is believed to assist in at least some of the missile attacks. The US doesn’t publicly acknowledge the existence of the covert, CIA-run program. During a news conference Saturday, Holbrooke said Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda terror network had been severely degraded in recent years. But he declined to lay blame for the failure to find bin Laden or Afghan Taleban leader Mullah Omar.
The two wanted men are “still at large, but they are under an intense pressure,” Holbrooke said. The envoy also praised Pakistan’s efforts in fighting militancy and acknowledged the thousands of lives the country has lost in the fight.