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| Al Jazeera, Feb 14, 2009 | |||
At least 25 people have been killed in a missile attack by an unmanned US drone in a tribal district of Pakistan, Pakistani officials have told Al Jazeera. The raid destroyed a house in the northwestern town of Ladha, a base for Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani Taliban leader accused of plotting the 2007 assassination of Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister of Pakistan, an official said. “Around 50 to 60 mujahideen [fighters] have been living [at the site of the attack] for about a week. All of them were Uzbeks,” a Taliban official said. Pakistan intelligence agents are investigating the attack on the house in the South Waziristan region on Saturday. Taliban fighters sealed off the site of the attack, preventing people from getting access, residents said. Pakistan angered The US has launched more than 30 missile attacks on Pakistani soil in recent months, ostensibly against al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked fighters. More than 220 people were killed in the raids, according to a tally of reports from Pakistani intelligence agents, district government officials and residents. Pakistan has been angered by the attacks, saying that innocent civilians have been killed and that Pakistani sovereignty has been infringed. Barack Obama, the US president, said this week that he has no doubt that Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked fighters are based in Pakistan’s tribal region and the US wants the support of Islamabad in tackling the armed groups. |
Tags: missile attack, Pakistan, people killed, President Barack Obama, Taliban, unmanned US drone
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