Arselifters Have No Place to Hide.
Bob Hawke
Article from: Agence France-Presse
By Hasbanullah Khan
November 21, 2009 12:48am
A SUSPECTED US missile attack targeting al-Qaeda-linked militants has killed
eight people in Pakistan's mountains on the Afghan border as CIA chief Leon
Panetta held talks in Islamabad.
The attack, the presumed work of CIA drones, was the second in two days in
North Waziristan, part of the belt which US officials have called the most
dangerous place on Earth and where al-Qaeda are plotting attacks on the
West.
Two missiles slammed into a compound used by Taliban militants in Palooseen
village in the district of Mir Ali, Pakistani officials said.
"At least eight people were killed in the drone attack. A compound used by
militants was targeted," a senior security official told AFP on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
Another security official described the target as a Taliban training centre.
There were foreigners among the dead, the official said, using a term
employed widely in Pakistan to mean al-Qaeda operatives.
US strikes, which fan anti-Americanism in the nuclear-armed Muslim country,
have surged since President Barack Obama took office and made the US-led war
on Islamist militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan a top priority.
The US military does not, as a rule, confirm drone attacks, which US
officials say have killed a number of top-level militants but which
Islamabad publicly opposes as a violation of its sovereignty.
Criticism of the strikes has lessened somewhat in public since a US drone
attack killed Pakistan's much feared Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud on
August 5 and analysts say Islamabad gives its tacit support to the strikes.
Mr Panetta held talks overnight with Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani on
Washington's policy review in Afghanistan, the premier's office said in a
brief statement.
Mr Panetta and Mr Gilani agreed on "operational functioning between the two
militaries and intelligence agencies" to eliminate the terror threat, it
said.
It was his second visit since taking office this year and comes a week after
US National Security Adviser James Jones held similar talks in Pakistan.
Mr Obama has said he is weeks away from unveiling a long-awaited war
strategy review in neighbouring Afghanistan, where commanders have warned
the conflict will be lost without an extra 40,000 US troops.
He is also reportedly increasing pressure on Islamabad to fight not just
militants who attack within Pakistan, but those using Pakistan as a base
from which to fight the Kabul government and Western troops in Afghanistan.
Some Pakistani officials have expressed concern that any major US troop
increase in Afghanistan could push Taliban fighters into Pakistan.
Yet Islamabad has warned against any precipitous US troop drawdown in case
Afghan fighters pour across the border, exacerbating the rising security
problems Pakistan has faced since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
The United States has been increasingly disturbed by deteriorating security
in Pakistan where attacks and bombings have killed more than 2550 people in
29 months since troops laid siege to a radical mosque in the capital
Islamabad.