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14 killed in suspected US missile strike in Pakistan

Pak jets kill 16 Taliban militants

AFP, Islamabad/ Khar
Up to 14 militants were killed yesterday when a suspected US missile strike destroyed an al-Qaeda training camp in a tribal area of northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border, officials said.
Four missiles are thought to have been fired at the camp, in Kumsham village, some 35 kilometres (22 miles) south of Miranshah in North Waziristan province.
Security sources said the village is dominated by Wazir tribes and is near the border with South Waziristan, another hub ofTaliban and al-Qaeda operatives.
"Between 11 to 14 militants, mainly foreigners, were killed in the strike," a senior military official told AFP on condition of anonym- ity, using the Pakistani term to describe al-Qaeda extremists.
Local official Attiq-ur Rehman also confirmed the strike but gave a different death toll. "There was a missile strike in the Kumsham village and it destroyed a compound, 13 people were killed," he said.
It was not immediately clear if there were any high-value targets among those killed, but sources said seven al-Qaeda operatives and a local Taliban commander were among the dead.
An intelligence official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, added: "The strike successfully destroyed the camp."
"The militants were using the facility for training," anothersaid.
A series of recent strikes against suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in Pakistan's tribal badlands bordering Afghanistan - all blamed on unmanned CIA drones -- have raised tensions between Washington and Islamabad.
On Monday, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari warned the new US commander for Iraq and Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, that the attacks were 'counterproductive’ and could harm the battle for hearts and mindshare.
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the country's military top brass also told the visiting general that the United States should respect Pakistani sovereignty’and territorial integrity.
Previous protests have seen Washington's ambassador to Islamabad. Anne Patterson, called
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in to the foreign ministry to hear the dissatisfaction of Pakistani officials.
Pakistan's national security adviser also reportedly made a personal protest to White House officials in Washington after a strike in September that claimed the lives of civilians.
Official sources, however, admit privately that successful US strikes benefit Pakistan’s military efforts to eliminate foreign militants on its soil.
Last weekend, two separate strikes in the North Waziristan and South Waziristan areas killed at least 32 mainly al-Qaeda operatives, according to Pakistani securitysources.
One just outside the North Waziristan town of Mir Ali killed an Egyptian al-Qaeda operative, Abu Jihad Al-Misri, described by the United States as the terror network's propaganda chief.
Pakistan is waiting to see how US president-elect Barack Obama will tackle militancy in Pakistan and Afghanistan once he takes office in January.
The Democratic senator from Illinois has said he favours continuing the strikes and increasing the , number of US troops to crush an insurgency by Taliban and other militants in Afghanistan.
Pakistan rejects accusations that it is not doing enough to tackle the extremist threat within its own borders.
Last month the military said that some 1,500 rebels and 73 soldiers had died since an operation began in August against militants in the semi-autonomous Bajaur region of northwest Pakistan bordering Afghanistan.
In fresh attacks at least 16 militants were killed Friday as Pakistani forces bombarded several suspected Taliban hideouts in a restive northwest tribal region known as a safe haven for militants, officiate said.
Jets pounded the towns of Damadola, Sewai and Sipra in Bajaur district where Pakistani forces have clashed with Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants for the past three months, local administration official Jamil Khan told AFP.
"Details of the casualties are comingin,"hesaid.
Another security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said 16 Taliban militants were killed. The toll may rise as the jets repeatedly bombed the suspected bases, he added.
At least 14 people were killed in Pakistani air strikes in Bajaur on Thursday and 15 extremists died in similar raids on Wednesday, according to local officials.
Security officials said the bombing campaign has been stepped up as land forces were planning a ground offensive in these towns where militants are said to have underground bunkers.
A suicide bomber blew himself up at a meeting of government-backed tribal elders on Thursday, killing 22 and injuring dozens more.
Pakistan's tribal belt became a safe haven for hundreds of extremists who fled Afghanistan after the US-led toppling of the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001 and have since set up training camps.
al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri escaped a CIA Predator raid in Damadola in January 2004, Pakistani officials have said.
Egyptian-born Zawahiri, who has a 25-million-dollar US bounty on his head, is said to have secretly visited the area in the past, according to Pakistani security officials.