PanARMENIAN.Net
U.S. strikes Pakistan
14.02.2009 13:15 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A senior Taliban official said a U.S. missile strike
killed "at least 25" Al-Qaeda-linked militants in Pakistan’s South
Waziristan region on the Afghan border on February 14.
The strike by pilotless drones was the third such attack since
U.S. President Barack Obama took office on January 20 and could ignite
fresh popular anger in Pakistan over the cross-border raids from
Afghanistan.
The Taliban official said those killed were mostly Uzbek fighters.
"Around 50 to 60 mujahedin [fighters] have been living there for about
a week," the source told Reuters. "All of them were Uzbeks."
Intelligence officials confirmed the incident.
U.S. drones carried out about 30 missile attacks on suspected
militants in 2008, according to a Reuters tally, more than half after
the beginning of September.
Pakistani President Asif Zardari told CBS News in an interview
scheduled to air on February 15 that the Taliban have established
themselves across a large part of his country, forcing Islamabad to
fight a war against the hard-line Islamist group that is about
Pakistan’s own survival, RFE/RL reports.