Pakistan: US Missile Strikes Again

THE US military may have targeted Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud Several in an airstrike on June 14, according to several reports from Pakistan.

Baitullah's hideout in the town of Makeen in South Waziristan was hit with three missiles, according to Geo Tv and the Daily Times  Only one person was confirmed killed in the strike. Baitullah is not believed to have been killed.

According to Express News, the drones fired three missiles at a house in a bid to target the hideout of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan chief Baitullah Mehsud. Locals have recovered one dead body from the debris of the house while more casualties are feared, it said.

Inter-Services Public Relations spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said he could not confirm the attack or the casualties. Abbas told Daily Times that neither the political agent concerned or locals could confirm the incident, as there was no military presence in the area.

A local security official, asking not to be named, told AFP that “extremists tried to hit the drone with a rocket-propelled grenade”. “The place from where the grenade was fired was then struck by a missile fired by the unmanned drone killing one suspected militant,” the official said.

After the missile attack, the US drones made flights over the Shawal area of North Waziristan, where locals also fired at the planes.

Several missile strikes in the tribal belt this year have been attributed to the US-led coalition based in Afghanistan, killing a number of people.

The incident in Makeen comes just days after an airstrike by US-led coalition forces that had killed 11 Pakistani troops. US officials have said the coalition was legitimately targeting militants but has offered to conduct a joint investigation with Pakistan.