A suspected US missile strike killed 10 militants at a training camp in Waziristan, while 25 people died in fresh clashes near the Afghan border, officials said Wednesday. The violence in the tribal regions along the mountainous frontier comes amid mounting US pressure for Islamabad to tackle rebels who are launching attacks on international forces in Afghanistan.
Four missiles hit a camp in South Waziristan, which was run by a militant from the Hezb-i-Islami group of wanted Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, security officials said. "At least 10 militants were killed in the strikes" late Tuesday, a senior Pakistani security official told AFP. "There were reports about the presence of Arab, Turkmen and local militants."
"This is their work," he added, referring to US-led coalition forces deployed across the border in Afghanistan. In Kabul, the US military said the missiles were not fired by the US-led coalition. "This is not true. We have no reports of missiles being fired into Pakistan," US-led coalition spokesman Lieutenant Nathan Perry told AFP.
The US Central Intelligence Agency is also known to operate pilotless drone aircraft armed with missiles, but it was not available for comment. Another security official said the camp was run by Zanjir Wazir, who he described as the "local commander of Hezb-i-Islami, Afghanistan".
"It is not clear whether Wazir survived the attack or not, but his brother Abdur Rehman and one of their close relatives, Abdul Salam, were killed in the strike," he added. Hekmatyar himself was not in the camp and is believed to be in Afghanistan, officials said.
Witnesses said the missiles destroyed two houses close to each other and rescue workers were seen removing debris amid fears that more people could be trapped inside. Local militants cordoned off the area and journalists were not allowed access to the site. Residents said the houses were part of a militant training camp.
Al Qaeda chemical and biological weapons expert Midhat Mursi al-Sayid Umar was killed in a similar missile strike in July. At least 25 people, mostly militants, were killed on Wednesday when Pakistani helicopter gunships strafed villages in Bajaur, taking the death toll from a week of fighting there to more than 180, officials and witnesses said.
Residents said people were fleeing to safer places in adjoining areas but Taliban militants were erecting roadblocks to prevent the exodus. Separately on Wednesday a gunman shot dead a militant leader, Haji Namdar, as he taught at a religious school in the Khyber near Peshawar, officials said.