At least 20 suspected militants were killed and several others injured when a US drone fired missiles at a vehicle and a compound in the border regions of South Waziristan Agency (SWA) on Wednesday.
The US drone fired two missiles at a vehicle in the Daray Nishtar area of Birmal Tehsil, SWA. The first attack was followed by another five missiles fired at a suspected militant training camp in the nearby Zaway Narai area, adjacent to North Waziristan Agency (NWA).
Officials in Miranshah, headquarters of NWA, said all five suspected militants onboard the vehicle were killed when the missiles hit, and another 15 were killed in the attack on the compound. The identity of those killed in the attack could not be ascertained immediately, but they included foreign and Punjabi militants, they added. The camp was run by fighters loyal to warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur, whose loyalists attack in Afghanistan, Pakistani officials told AFP. “The death toll is 20. It is likely to go up,” said a senior security official. Local residents described the camp as a major training centre on the top of a hill surrounded by trees and ice cold natural springs. An intelligence official in the region said the militants had cordoned off the area and no-one was allowed to visit the sites of the attacks, Reuters reported.
