Civilians and police were among 41 people killed when US missiles ploughed into a militant training compound in Taliban and al Qaeda-hit north-west on Thursday, officials said. It was the most lethal drone strike to hit the lawless region since August 2008 when the covert campaign escalated in the areas bordering Afghanistan, and the seventh such attack in nine days.
The governor of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, where the drone struck, condemned the killings. "I strongly condemn this drone attack. A tribal jirga (council) was targeted in which several tribal elders and tribal policemen were martyred," said Syed Masood Kausar, the federal representative of the troubled province. Although the drones operate with the tacit consent of Islamabad, Kausar said the government "will not tolerate such attacks".
"These attacks are against the sovereignty of Pakistan," he added. Two security officials in Peshawar said that 41 people, mostly militants, were killed when four missiles hit a house in Datta Khel town, 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in tribal North Waziristan.
Two intelligence officials in Miranshah confirmed the toll. "We have reports of a few civilian casualties, but most of those killed were local militants," one Miranshah official said. "There were some civilians present inside the training centre. We were told that they came here to seek Taliban help to solve some of their disputes," a second intelligence official told AFP.
US drones have frequently targeted Datta Khel, known as a stronghold of the Taliban commander and al Qaeda linked warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadar, and the Peshawar official said the militants hit were members of the Pakistani Taliban. Missile attacks doubled in the area last year as the campaign was stepped up, with more than 100 drone strikes killing over 670 people in 2010 compared with 45 strikes that killed 420 in 2009, according to an AFP tally.
US officials say the missile strikes have severely weakened al Qaeda's leadership and killed high-value targets including the former Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. The United States says that Pakistan-based militants are helping to escalate the war in Afghanistan, putting up a deadly fight against 140,000 US-led Nato troops there and seeking to bring down the Western-backed government in Kabul.