& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

US missile strike kills 6 in Pakistan

Joint border operation with Pakistan launched

AP, AFP, Islamabad
A suspected US missile strike hit a village dtep inside Pakistani territory yesterday, officials said, killing six alleged militants and indicating American willingness to pursue insurgents beyond Pakistan's lawless tribal regions. A major Al Qaeda operative of Arab origin was among the six militants killed in the missile strike, a senior security official told AFP Wednesday.
Security sources identified (he militant as
Abdullah Azam Al-Saudi, a senior member in Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
"He was a senior commander of al-Qaeda and was involved in recruiting and training of fighters," the senior official said
He is the second high-profile al-Qaeda operative killed in recent US missile strikes in Pakistan's rugged tribal region bordering Afghanistan.
Egyptian al-Qaeda operative Abu Jihad al Masri, described by the US as the terror
network s propaganda chief, was killed in a missile strike in Pakistan in the early hours of November 1.
fhe strike was part of a surge of such cross-border attacks in Pakistan's militant-plagued northwest in the last three months. It could heighten Pakistani-US tensions because it was the first to hit an area outside the semiautonomous tribal belt.
Javed Marwat, a local government official, told I'he Associated Press that two missiles destroyed a house in Indi Khel tillage in Bannu district. Two Pakistani intelligence officials said their agents reported that militants from Central Asia were among six killed.
The US, which says Taliban and al-Qaeda militants use pockets of northwest Pakistan to plan attackson foreign troops in Afghanistan, is blamed in about 20 cross-border missile strikessince August.
The missiles are apparently fired from unmanned planes launched in Afghanistan, where some 32,000 US troops are fighting the Taliban and other militants.
Pakistan has protested the strikes as violations of its sovereignty and international law, but the attacks continue, leading analysts to speculate the two nations have a secret deal.
Until Wednesday, all the attacks since August were in North and South Waziristan, two tribal regions where the government has ceded much of its limited control to militants. US officials say they want to help Pakistan regain sovereignty over such areas.Bannu falls under the control of the regional government. The Bannu district begins roughly 18 miles away from the border with Afghanistan.
Two other intelligence officials, both based in Bannu, said militants had begun moving further away from the border, including to their district and other settled areas, in an apparent bid to avoid the missilestrikes.
All the intelligence officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to media.
Pakistan says it is rarely warned of such attacks and has demanded the US share intelli-
after targets on its own. The United States rarely confirms or denies the strikes, which are believed to be carried out mainlybytheCIA.
Even as the strikes have picked up, US officers in Afghanistan have stressed Improved day-to-day Pakistani cooperation in squeezing militants nested along both sides of the lengthy, porous border.
US military officials said troops in Afghanistan coordinated with Pakistan on Sunday in shelling insurgents inside Pakistan who were launching rockets at the foreign troops. Pakistan's official statement on the matter referred only to militant activity in Afghanistan.