A suspected U.S. missile strike killed up to 20 people in northwestern Pakistan on Monday, officials said, the latest salvo in an intensifying assault on militant hide-outs near the Afghan border. The reported strike occurred in the South Waziristan region, part of Pakistan's wild border zone that is considered a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri.
Two intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to media on the record, said the targeted house in Mandata Raghzai village belonged to a lieutenant of local Taliban chief Maulvi Nazir. The officials, citing reports from agents and informers in the area, said militants cordoned off the scene. The identities of the 20 bodies pulled from the rubble were not immediately known, they said.
Pakistan's new leaders have protested the missile strikes -- as well as a highly unusual raid by helicopter-borne commandos in September -- as unacceptable violations of their sovereignty.
The US embassy has retained the services of Inspector Clouseau to the bottom of these suspected, and suspiciously on target, strikes.
| They can't complain about 'violations of their sovereignty' when they themselves don't defend it. |
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