[ 2011-06-06 ]

Pakistan: US triple drone strike 'kills 18'
Three US drone strikes have killed at least 18
people on the volatile Afghan-Pakistan border,
officials say.

The first two attacks hit a compound and seminary
in the South Waziristan tribal area, officials
said. The third hit a vehicle travelling on the
border.

They come days after al-Qaeda operative Ilyas
Kashmiri was reported to have been killed in a US
strike in the area.

Militants have vowed to avenge his reported
killing, as well as the death of Osama Bin Laden
last month.

On Sunday, at least 18 people died in a bomb blast
at a bakery in the garrison town of Nowshera in
northwest Pakistan.

Earlier, another bomb explosion at a bus stop on
the outskirts of Peshawar killed six people. Both
attacks are being blamed on the Pakistani
Taliban.

Monday's drone attacks targeted a compound and a
religious seminary in the mountains near Wana,
according to reports.

There were "foreigners" among those killed, say
reports, though their identities were not
immediately known.

United States officials do not routinely confirm
that they have carried out drone attacks, but
analysts say that only US forces have the capacity
to carry out such strikes in the region.

More than 100 raids were reported last year in the
troubled tribal areas along the Afghan border.

Many militants, some of them senior, have been
killed in the drone strikes, but hundreds of
civilians have also died.

Correspondents say that in the past the drone
strikes have had the tacit approval of the
Pakistani authorities, although Pakistani leaders
always denied secretly supporting them.

In recent months, senior Pakistani security
officials have reportedly been pressing for a
limit to such operations.

Source - BBC

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