A US drone attack Thursday killed 18 insurgents - mostly Afghans - at a militant compound in tribal region near the north-western border with Afghanistan, officials said. It was the second US missile strike reported in as many days in the north-west, considered a stronghold of the Taliban and al Qaeda. The attack was the deadliest since similar strike in August last year killed 21 Taliban fighters in the restive tribal region.
"US drones fired four missiles on a militant compound and initial reports say 11 militants have died," local administration chief Khushal Khan told AFP in Orakzai district. He said most of the dead were Afghans. His deputy Rafiq Mohmand later put the toll at 18 dead. "Several militants were wounded who died later and the new death toll is 18," Mohmand told AFP. A security official confirmed the attack and the death toll.
The compound was located in the Baland Khel area on the border between Orakzai and North Waziristan, a intelligence official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Militants had sealed off the flattened building and were recovering bodies, he said. The building belonged to Maulvi Shakirullah, a commander in the forces of warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur. Bahadur is an ally of the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network blamed by the Americans for a string of high-profile attacks in Afghanistan. On Wednesday a US drone strike targeting another compound in North Waziristan killed five fighters, according to officials.
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