S bomb ‘kills five in Pakistan’

Tensions in the border region are rising At least five people have been killed in another suspected US missile strike on militant targets in Pakistan’s border region, Pakistani officials say. Officials said a missile was launched by a suspected US aircraft in the North Waziristan tribal area. Pakistan’s army says it is investigating the incident. It would be the third attack in three days allegedly carried out by US forces, who have not officially confirmed their involvement. Unilateral strikes Some reports say Islamist militants were killed in Friday’s attack, while local TV channels said women and children were among the dead. Witnesses said missiles fired by an unmanned aircraft hit one or two houses in the village of Kurvek, about 30km (18 miles) west of the main town of Miranshah in North Waziristan. “Two drones were flying in the area. They fired three missiles,” one unnamed witness told Reuters news agency. Several people are reported to have been injured in addition to those killed. Pakistan’s military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said reports of the incident were being investigated. “Pakistani forces did not carry out any activity in the area,” he told the AFP news agency. This would be the third such attack in three days, including an unprecedented ground assault allegedly carried out by American commandos. In recent months US forces have stepped up unilateral strikes on Taleban and al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan’s tribal areas. They say Pakistan – a key US ally in the “war on terror” since 2001 – is not doing enough to stem the flow of insurgents across the border into Afghanistan. Pakistani security officials suspect the Americans are trying to hit senior al-Qaeda targets ahead of forthcoming US presidential elections, our correspondent says. Targets At least two senior al-Qaeda figures are believed to have been killed in US missile strikes on Pakistani territory this year. A senior al-Qaeda leader in Afghanistan, Abu Laith al-Libi, was reported killed in February, while Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar, described as a leading al-Qaeda chemical weapons expert, died in July, reports said. It is not clear who the targets of strikes this week might have been. On Thursday, at least five people were killed in a missile strike in the village of Mohammad Khel near Miranshah. Officials said all five were low-level militants of Arab origin. Meanwhile, large numbers of people have decided to leave their settlements near Angor Adda in South Waziristan. The town was attacked on Thursday by foreign troops carried across the border from Afghanistan by helicopter, Pakistan’s government says. Officially, the US military has no knowledge of such an incursion, but Pentagon sources have confirmed that US commandoes carried out the raid. Pakistan responded furiously, summoning the US ambassador and calling the attack a gross violation of its sovereignty. Pakistan’s army has warned that such direct US action could rally more tribesmen behind the Taleban and incite a wider uprising.

Pakistan fury over ‘US assault’

Tension in Pakistan’s north-west has increased in recent months

Pakistan has summoned the US ambassador to protest at an alleged cross-border raid which officials say killed at least 15 villagers in the north-west.

A number of civilians were reported killed in the raid, which Pakistan says was a violation of its sovereignty.

Correspondents say the raid appears to have been the first ever ground assault by foreign forces based in Afghanistan.

US-led and Nato forces said they had no reports of any such incursion. Border tensions have risen in recent weeks.

US aircraft have carried out air strikes in the region, but a ground assault would be unprecedented.

It is not clear who the target of any attack might have been.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Pakistan would not allow any foreign power to carry out attacks on its territory.

He was speaking hours after his motorcade was hit by sniper fire near the capital, Islamabad. Senior government officials say he was not in the car at the time.

‘Act of aggression’

Pakistani military and political officials say ground troops brought in by US-led coalition helicopters launched the attack in the South Waziristan tribal area near the Afghan border early on Wednesday morning.

Locals say soldiers attacked with gunfire and bombs. Women and children were among those reported killed.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said a “very strong protest” had been delivered to the ambassador, Anne Paterson.

“The ambassador said that she would convey it to her government,” he said.

The army called the attack an act of aggression which undermined the fight against militancy.

North West Frontier Province (NWFP) Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani, who is in administrative charge of the tribal areas, called the attack “cowardly”.

“At least 20 innocent citizens of Pakistan, including women and children, were martyred,” he said in a statement.

There is mounting US pressure on Pakistan – a key ally in the “war on terror” – to crack down on militants, who use the border region to launch raids into Afghanistan.

The Afghan government and Nato say the border region is a haven for al-Qaeda and the Taleban. Pakistan says it is doing all it can to curb militancy.

On Monday, Pakistan’s military suspended its operations against Taleban militants in the neighboring Bajaur tribal area.

The government said this suspension of fighting was to respect the fasting month of Ramadan.

Taleban spokesman Maulvi Omar welcomed the announcement, but he said militants would not lay down their arms.