Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Over 30 Pro-Taliban Mutants Iced in Pakistan

It's a Reuters report, so skepticism is warranted, but either way you slice it, a bunch of thugs are dead.

They say it was a missile, while some say it's a possible work accident.
A missile attack, possibly launched by U.S. forces in Afghanistan, killed at least 32 pro-Taliban militants in a Pakistani tribal region near the border on Tuesday, Pakistani officials said.

The missiles targeted a suspected training base in a village near the mountainous Datta Khel district, 60 km (40 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorised to brief the media, told Reuters.

Intelligence officials said some foreigners were among those killed, raising the possibility that al Qaeda fighters might have also been present. North Waziristan is a known refuge for remnants of Osama bin Laden's network.

"There was a cluster of three houses and a tent which were hit. Thre were about 45 people in that area," a senior government official told Reuters.

Army spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said there had been an explosion in the area, but he denied it was caused by missiles and added that the army had not carried out any operations there either.

"It wasn't a missile attack," Arshad said, adding that initial reports suggested the explosion occurred while the militants were making a bomb.

Such explanations have been offered in the past when U.S. forces in Afghanistan have launched strikes on targets in Pakistani territory.

The goverment is sensitive to any report of foreign forces carrying out operations in Pakistani territory or airspace.
UPDATE: More from Bill Roggio.
A joint al-Qaeda and Taliban training camp was struck in a missile attack in Pakistan's lawless Northwest Frontier Province. A strike, believed to have been launched by U.S. forces from Afghanistan, hit a train camp in the town of Mami Rogha in the Datta Khel district of North Waziristan. Upwards of 32 Taliban and possibly foreign al Qaeda were killed in the strike on the camp, which is situated about 26 miles west of Miramshah.

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