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PESHAWAR: According to a BBCUrdu report, Ilyas Kashmiri, a Pakistani terrorist leader with ties to al Qaeda, was among those killed in the latest drone strikes in South Waziristan. The report quoted locals as saying that Kashmiri was killed in the strike that killed at least nine militants. Kashmiri was the chief of the Harkatul Jihad al-Islami (HJI), an organisation affiliated with al Qaeda. He is widely believed to have masterminded the attack on the PNS Mehran naval base in Karachi. A government official in Peshawar told BBCUrdu that although he had been receiving information regarding the death of Kashmiri...

MIRAMSHAH: A US missile strike targeting a militant compound killed five rebels in Pakistan’s tribal badlands near the Afghan border on Friday, security officials said. The strike took place in Ghwakhwa area, 10 kilometres (six miles) west of Wana, the main town of South Waziristan tribal region, where the military launched an operation two years ago. “A US drone fired three missiles on a militant compound, killing five rebels,” a senior security official in the area told AFP. Another security official confirmed the strike and casualties but said the “identities of those killed in the attack were not immediately known”....

MIRAMSHAH: A US drone strike on Monday destroyed a vehicle in Pakistan’s Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked stronghold of North Waziristan on the Afghan border, killing seven militants, officials said. The attack took place on the outskirts of Mir Ali, some 30 kilometres east of Miramshah, the main town of the district where US officials want Pakistan to launch an offensive against networks fighting in Afghanistan. “A US drone fired two missiles which hit a vehicle. At least seven militants have been killed,” one security official in Peshawar told AFP. Another intelligence official in Miranshah said two drones fired four missiles, hitting...

MIRANSHAH: A US drone strike destroyed a vehicle in Pakistan’s Taliban-infested North Waziristan district on the Afghan border, killing six suspected militants on Friday, local officials said. The two missiles struck the Tappi area, 10 kilometres (six miles) east of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, where US officials want Pakistan to launch an offensive against networks fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan. “A US drone targeting a militants’ vehicle fired two missiles killing four militants,” a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Another local security official confirmed the strike and casualties, saying the identity of those killed in...

MIRANSHAH: Two US drone strikes targeting a compound and a vehicle in North Waziristan Agency killed at least twelve terrorists and wounded four others on Monday, officials said. Both the attacks took place in Mir Ali Town, some 40 kilometres east of Miranshah, a stronghold of Taliban and al Qaeda-linked terrorists. Two US drones fired two missiles into a terrorist compound, and minutes later another drone fired two missiles at a vehicle nearby, officials said. “In the first strike, two missiles destroyed the compound and killed six terrorists. The second attack killed those travelling in a car,” an official told...

MIRANSHAH: A US drone fired two missiles into a vehicle in Pakistan’s tribal district of North Waziristan on Friday, killing at least four militants, local security officials said. The attack took place in Kharkamar area, 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Miranshah, a stronghold of Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants. “A US drone fired two missiles targeting a militant vehicle, killing at least four militants,” a senior security official told AFP. It was the fourth such attack reported in Pakistan’s tribal badlands on the Afghan border, which Washington has dubbed the global headquarters of al-Qaeda, since US commandos killed Osama...

MIRANSHAH: A US drone fired two missiles into a vehicle in Pakistan’s tribal district of North Waziristan on Thursday, killing at least seven suspected militants, local security officials said. It was the third such attack reported in Pakistan’s tribal badlands on the Afghan border, which Washington has dubbed the global headquarters of al Qaeda, since US commandos killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani city near Islamabad. “A US drone fired two missiles on a militants’ vehicle in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan,” one Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. “Seven militants were killed,” the...

PESHAWAR: A US drone strike targeting a vehicle killed four militants in Pakistan’s tribal belt on Tuesday, local officials said, the second such operation since the killing of Osama bin Laden. A security official said the drones fired two missiles into South Waziristan. Another official said the missiles fell near Angoor Adda village. “Two missiles were fired on a vehicle at about 4:15 pm (1115 GMT) and four militants were killed,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. The identity of the militants was not immediately known. On Monday, hundreds of Taliban rallied in Wana, the main town of...

Back in 2007, presidential candidate Barack Obama suggested that he'd violate the sovereignty of Pakistan in order to fight terrorism. His opponent, John McCain, scoffed. From the 2008 Time Capsule: During Friday's debate, Obama criticized the Bush administration for sending billions of dollars in aid to Pakistan without ridding the border region of terrorists. "If the United States has al Qaeda, bin Laden, top-level lieutenants in our sights, and Pakistan is unable or unwilling to act, then we should take them out," Obama added. McCain fired back hard, arguing that newly elected Pakistani president Asif Ali Zardari has had his...

PESHAWAR: Four missiles fired by two suspected US pilotless aircrafts hit a house in North Waziristan on the Afghan border on Friday, killing 25 militants, Pakistani intelligence officials said. The drone strike happened in Mir Ali, a town about 35 kilometres east of the region’s main town of Miranshah. An intelligence official in the region, who requested not to be identified, told Reuters that the house was being used as a militant hideout. “The militants have surrounded the area where the attack happened and are not allowing anybody to go there,” he said, adding 25 bodies had been recovered from...

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – An Iraqi al-Qaida operative was believed to be one of 15 militants killed in two U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan's tribal belt along the Afghan border Monday, Pakistani intelligence officials said. The officials said the man, identified as Abu Zaid al-Iraqi, handled the terrorist group's finances in Pakistan. He was not known to be on any published U.S. lists of wanted al-Qaida leaders, and U.S. officials do not normally acknowledge the existence of the CIA-led missile program or talk about who is being killed. The two strikes, coming roughly 24 hours apart, were the first...

MIRAMSHAH: At least 18 suspected militants and civilians were killed on Tuesday in what appears to be a surge in US drone attacks in the volatile North Waziristan, official sources said. The death toll from seven back-to-back strikes in the region adjacent to the border with Afghanistan during the past 24 hours jumped to 43. On Monday unmanned aircraft targeted three vehicles in Mirali tehsil, killing 25 suspected militants. The majority of those killed belonged to Orakzai Agency and Bannu district. Local officials said that two missiles were fired at two suspected compounds at around 10am on Tuesday in Sherkhel...

MIRANSHAH: At least seven militants were killed in a US drone strike on a militant compound in North Waziristan near the Afghan border early Tuesday, DawnNews reported. Missiles from the unmanned aircraft targeted an insurgent training centre, one official told AFP. The strike hit targets in Ghulam Khan village on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, some 15 kilometers north of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal district. “Militants were using the compound as a training facility,” a senior security official told AFP.

MIRAMSHAH: Nine militants were killed in North Waziristan in two attacks carried out by US drones on Friday. In the first attack, a US drone fired missiles at a car in Machikhel area of Mirali tehsil in North Waziristan, killing five militants, sources said. They said that the drone fired two missiles when the car was about to leave a residential compound, killing five Afghan militants belonging to the Haqqani network. AFP adds: Another drone attack, this time on a militant compound in Azizkhel town in Mirali district, killed another four militants. “A US drone fired four missiles at a...

MIRAMSHAH: A US drone strike killed seven militants at a compound in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region Sunday, security officials said. The compound was located by a road in Shewa district about 40 kilometres northeast of the region's main town of Miramshah. The drone fired four missiles at the compound and two vehicles parked outside were also destroyed, an intelligence official in Miramshah told AFP. “At least seven militants were killed and three wounded,” a security official in Peshawar told AFP, raising his earlier casualty estimate. The casualties were confirmed by two other intelligence officials in Miramshah. The strike is...

Islamabad - Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, an alleged key al-Qaeda operative of Libyan origin, has been killed in a suspected US drone strike in Pakistan's lawless tribal region, security officials said on Saturday. The US had placed a $1m bounty on al-Rahman, who was killed Thursday when a CIA-operated unmanned aircraft fired two missiles on a vehicle in Khushali Jungle area of North Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan. A total of four people died in the strike. "We have received reports that al-Qaeda leader Atiya Abd al-Rahman has been killed in the October 07 drone attack. Together with him another low-ranking al-Qaeda...

ISLAMABAD: Intelligence officials say two suspected US missile strikes have killed nine people in a northwest Pakistan tribal region along the Afghan border. One strike Friday evening in the town of Mohammad Khel killed four people and a second in Datta Khel killed five, two officials said. The area of the strikes in North Waziristan is believed to be controlled by Pakistani Taliban militants. The officials say all nine dead are believed to be militants and some may be foreign fighters.

MIRAMSHAH: US drones carried out two attacks in North Waziristan on Wednesday, killing 11 suspected militants, sources said. Six militants were killed and two others injured when two missiles fired by an unmanned aircraft slammed into a house in the Miramshah Bazaar, they said. Six mutilated bodies and two injured persons were pulled out from the rubbles of the house which had caught fire after the strike. The injured were taken to the agency headquarters hospital in Miramshah. The sources said that those killed were local militants. (According to AFP, three of the militants killed in the attack belonged to...

PESHAWAR: A US missile strike targeting a vehicle killed four militants in Pakistan's rugged tribal region, near the Afghan border on Sunday, officials said. The attack took place in Asar village of Datta Khel town, some 50 kilometres (31 miles) west of Miranshah, the main district of North Waziristan tribal region, also known as a hub for Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants. -AFP

MIRANSHAH: A US drone on Tuesday fired three missiles at a militant compound in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt near the Afghan border, killing five militants, officials said. “At least five militants were killed when a US drone fired three missiles at a militant compound,” a senior security official told AFP. The attack took place in Azam Warsak village, some 25 kilometres (15 miles) west of Wana, the main town of South Waziristan tribal district, the official said. An intelligence official and a local administration official confirmed the attack and death toll. -AFP