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US drones 'bomb Pakistan target' | |
(about 3 hours later) | |
At least 11 people have been killed and 15 injured in a suspected US missile strike in Pakistan's border region, witnesses and officials say. | |
Suspected aerial drones bombed a house and seminary linked to Taleban commander Jalaludin Haqqani. | |
Pakistan's army confirmed an explosion in the North Waziristan tribal area. | |
It would be the fourth cross-border attack in less than a week allegedly carried out by US forces, who have not officially confirmed their involvement. | |
This follows persistent US accusations that Pakistan is not doing enough to eliminate Taleban and al-Qaeda sanctuaries in the border region. | |
The upsurge in strikes has alarmed Pakistani military and government officials, who say it seriously undermines their counter-insurgency operations | |
Bodies | |
Villagers say unmanned US aircraft fired several missiles at a house and an Islamic seminary in the tribal area of North Waziristan. | |
Haqqani and Sirajuddin were in Afghanistan at the time of the attack - they are alive Badruddin Haqqani | |
Officials and witnesses say the complex was hit a number of times. | |
"There were two drones and they fired three missiles," an unnamed resident of Dandi Darpakheil, a village near Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, told Reuters news agency. | |
Other reports speak of three drones. | |
Casualties are reported to include militants, as well as a number of civilians. | |
Security officials say that the house belonged to Jalaludin Haqqani, a veteran Afghan Taleban commander said to have close links to Osama Bin Laden. | |
Mr Haqqani and his son, Sirajuddin, who is also a Taleban commander, were not at home, another son, Badruddin, told Reuters by telephone. | |
Badruddin Haqqani said one of his aunts had been killed in the raid, and that women and children were among those who had been hurt. | |
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan says the residential-cum-seminary complex has been raided a number of times by the Pakistani army, and hit by aerial attacks from across the border with Afghanistan. | |
Mr Haqqani has maintained the complex since 1980 and family, clansmen and militants still use the premises, our correspondent says. | |
Our correspondent says militants immediately cordoned off the entire area and shifted bodies dug up from the debris elsewhere. | |
Officials in Miranshah say they still do not have evidence that any high-value target may have been hit. | |
Rising tensions | |
In recent months, US forces based in Afghanistan have been accused of stepping up attacks against suspected Taleban targets over the border in Pakistan's tribal region. | |
Last week Pakistan condemned an alleged raid by foreign troops based in Afghanistan, which officials say killed at least 15 villagers in South Waziristan. | |
In the same week, at least 10 people were killed in two suspected US missile strikes on alleged militant targets in North Waziristan. | |
Pakistan's army has warned that such direct US action could rally more tribesmen behind the Taleban and incite a wider uprising, our correspondent says. |