At least one suspected US drone fired on a house in tribal region Sunday, killing 20 people in the 11th such attack since militants in the area orchestrated a deadly suicide bombing against the CIA in Afghanistan, intelligence officials said.
Four missiles slammed into the house in the Shaktoi area of South Waziristan, the same region where a drone strike Thursday targeted a meeting of militant commanders in an apparently unsuccessful attempt to kill Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud.
The house targeted in Sunday's attack was being used by Usman Jan, the head of the al Qaida-linked Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, intelligence officials said. Five Uzbeks were killed in the strike, but it was unclear if Jan was among them. Jan's predecessor, Tahir Yuldash, was also killed in a drone strike in South Waziristan last year. The other 15 people killed in Sunday's strike were Taliban, said the officials. Four more militants were seriously wounded, but their identities were unknown, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media.
The US does not usually comment on the drone strikes or their targets, but officials have said in the past that they have taken out several senior al Qaida and Taliban leaders. ``A panic among mujahedeen forced me to issue this new message,' said Mehsud.