Pakistan Views

A missile strike early on Thursday killed at least 13 people, most of them Arabs, in South Waziristan officials and residents said. Residents in Azam Warsak village in South Waziristan told AFP that a house was destroyed by a missile fired from a pilotless drone and the loud blast was heard miles (kilometres) away in the rugged valley.
US drones have launched several previous strikes on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region targeting militants from Osama bin Laden’s network, although there was no immediate confirmation from Pakistani forces. A spokesman for the US-led coalition force based in Afghanistan said neither it nor the separate Nato-headed force were involved in the strike.
We have no reports that any of our forces are involved, coalition spokesman Major Chris Belcher told AFP. Security officials said they had received a report that a guided missile fired from neighbouring Afghanistan had hit a house belonging to a local tribesman at about 2:00 am Thursday (2100 GMT Wednesday).
The death toll is now 12 to 13 people — three of the dead appear to be from Punjab (central Pakistani province where several militant groups are based) while the rest are Arabs, a security official told AFP. At least five people were also injured in the attack, officials added. The security officials said they had no information on who could have been targeted in the attack. Pakistani officials do not confirm US strikes against al Qaeda-linked militants on its territory because of political sensitivities over sovereignty.
Libyan militant and Osama bin Laden’s operational number three Abu Laith al-Libi was killed in a missile strike on January 29 in the neighbouring Pakistani tribal area of North Waziristan. Al-Qaeda number two Ayman Al-Zawahiri vowed to avenge al-Libi’s death in a videotape message broadcast on an Islamist website on Wednesday.
Thousands of al Qaeda and Taliban militants fled into Pakistan’s tribal belt after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.