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Drone strike hits Pakistan tribal area of North Waziristan Taliban 'fled' Pakistani offensive 'before it began'
(about 7 hours later)
At least six suspected militants have been killed in a US drone strike in the Pakistani tribal region of North Waziristan. A Pakistani army commander in the tribal region of North Waziristan has said that senior Taliban militants managed to flee the area before the start of an offensive in mid-June.
The strike hit the border town of Datta Khel, thought to be on the escape route for militants fleeing a government offensive in the region. It is the first time the army has admitted that militant leaders escaped, the BBC's Shahzeb Jillani says.
Pakistan launched an operation against militants sheltering in tribal areas close to the Afghan border last month. The aim of the offensive is to rid the region of the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
The US resumed drone strikes in June after a six-month lull. On Thursday at least six suspected militants were killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan.
This would be the third drone strike since they renewed their attacks, the first of which took place on 12 June. Three weeks into an army offensive in the region, the military say that about 400 suspected militants have been killed - mostly by air strikes carried out by helicopter gunships.
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says that members of the Pakistani Taliban as well as militants affiliated to the commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur's group have a presence in Datta Khel. The figures cannot be independently verified.
Officials say most of those killed were foreign fighters trying to escape the Pakistani military's offensive. Major-General Zafarullah Khan admitted that the senior militant senior leadership remains at large and that some saw the operation coming.
On Wednesday, the army official leading troops in North Waziristan acknowledged that much of the militant leadership had left the area before the start of the operation. "It will be wrong on my part to say that some of them did not escape," he said.
"It will be wrong on my part to say that some of them did not escape," Maj Gen Zaffar Khan said.
"They could smell the operation was about to begin. The talks failed, the build-up for the operation had already begun and they could see that, they could sense and smell and therefore the leadership was not here. The leadership tried to abandon the place.""They could smell the operation was about to begin. The talks failed, the build-up for the operation had already begun and they could see that, they could sense and smell and therefore the leadership was not here. The leadership tried to abandon the place."
But Maj Gen Khan insisted that the army was determined not let the region become a militant sanctuary again, the BBC's Shahzeb Jillani in Islamabad reports. One Pakistani Taliban commander, Gilaman Mehsood, said in a telephone interview with the AP news agency from an undisclosed location that the military's casualty figures were incorrect and that most Pakistani Taliban fighters have taken sanctuary in border areas of Afghanistan.
Washington has for years used unmanned drones to carry out strikes on Taliban and al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan's border region with Afghanistan. Our correspondent says that some in Pakistan allege that militants with close ties to elements in the army were given ample warning, and even safe passage, to get out before the operation began.
Pakistan has always denied reports that US drone strikes on its territory take place with the government's approval. But it is an allegation that the military strongly denies.
The operation against the Pakistani Taliban and other militants in the region has long been a demand of the US, which says that its troops in Afghanistan are being attacked by militants based in the region.
Unable to deploy troops in the area, America has instead relied on CIA drone strikes in North Waziristan.
The most recent was in the border town of Datta Khel, thought to be on the escape route for militants fleeing the army's offensive.
It was the third drone strike since they renewed their attacks, the first of which took place on 12 June.