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MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) – A suspected U.S. drone aircraft fired two missiles on Thursday into North Waziristan, a major al Qaeda and Taliban sanctuary in northwest Pakistan, killing two people, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) – A US drone missile attack on a suspected militant hideout in a remote tribal area in northwest Pakistan early Thursday killed at least four people, security officials said. The pre-dawn strike targeted the suspected militant compound in Dandey Darpa Khel in the North Waziristan region near the Afghan border, a security official said. "It was a drone strike and initial reports said at least three people were killed and several wounded," the official said, requesting anonymity. A senior security official later said four people were killed and six wounded. A third security official said two missiles...

Two commanders of the Pakistani Taliban acknowledged Tuesday that the militants' top leader, Baitullah Mehsud, was killed by a U.S. missile strike. It was the first time the militants acknowledged Mehsud's death, first reported shortly after the CIA missile strike Aug. 5 near the Afghan border. ... "He was wounded. He got the wounds in a drone strike and he was martyred two days ago," Hakimullah Mehsud said. Rehman later repeated the same statement.

ISLAMABAD – A suspected missile attack early Friday destroyed a militant hideout in northwest Pakistan, killing at least seven people, two intelligence officials said. The officials said some people also were wounded when the two missiles hit a compound in the village of Dande Darpa Khel, near Miran Shah in troubled tribal region of North Waziristan. ... The area is also believed to be frequented by associates of an Afghan Taliban leader, Siraj Haqqani, whose network is powerful in eastern Afghanistan.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – A suspected U.S. missile strike hit a Taliban communication center in the country's northwest late Friday, killing at least three people and wounding three more, intelligence officials said. The attack was the fifth in two weeks by attributed to American unmanned drone aircraft targeting Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and his network of militants. Three intelligence officials said the drone fired a pair of missiles at the communication center in the Painda Khel region of South Waziristan. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

At least four of the dead were believed to be foreign militants ISLAMABAD - Suspected U.S. missiles killed seven people in a Pakistani Taliban stronghold Sunday, officials said, while an attack on a military convoy and a cleric's two-week deadline for the creation of Islamic courts rattled peace talks with militants elsewhere in the country's northwest. The missile strike underscored the Obama administration's unwillingness to abandon a Bush-era tactic said to have killed several key al-Qaida figures, despite persistent Pakistani protests. The Muslim nation has used both peace pacts and military offensives to deal with insurgents along its border with...

A major Al-Qaeda operative of Arab origin was among six militants killed overnight in a suspected US missile strike in northwest Pakistan, a senior security official told AFP Wednesday. Security sources identified the militant as Abdullah Azam al-Saudi, a senior member in Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network. "He was a senior commander of Al-Qaeda and was involved in recruiting and training of fighters," the senior official said. According to US intelligence shared with Pakistan, al-Saudi was the main link between Al-Qaeda's senior command and Taliban networks in the Pakistani border region, an Islamabad-based senior security official said. "He was the...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's army lodged a formal protest Friday to "allied forces" in neighboring Afghanistan over a suspected U.S. missile strike this week that killed 14 people in a Pakistani border village. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said Pakistan concluded that Wednesday's attack on a house in Damadola village was launched by drones from Afghanistan. Abbas said a formal protest was lodged Friday with "allied forces" in Afghanistan, an apparent reference to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force that is fighting the Taliban-led insurgency there. The U.S. is among the nations contributing to ISAF. Abbas said 14 people...

Saddam fled just before bombing By Randa Habib in Jordan November 6, 2003 SADDAM Hussein fled from a villa in Baghdad's Al-Mansur neighbourhood where he was set to meet four close aides on April 7, only 15 minutes before it was bombed by US forces, according to a former Iraqi government official. Saddam was due to meet with his number two Izzat Ibrahim al-Durri, vice-president Taha Yassin Ramadan, defence minister Sultan Hashem and intelligence chief Tahir Jalil al-Habbush al-Takriti, the former official told AFP. The source, who was speaking from a location outside Iraq and outside Jordan, said that Saddam...