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10 die after missle attack in Pakistan tribal area

Other News Materials 3 November 2007 05:25 (UTC +04:00)

(Gulfnews) -A missile strike on a pro-Taliban militant camp in Pakistan's tribal belt killed 10 people on Friday, as rebels in another area paraded 48 men said to be troops captured during fierce clashes.

Local sources said two foreigners - usually associated with Al Qaida in the tribal regions - were among the dead.

The Pentagon said the US military did not carry out a missile strike yesterday. "There was no indication that that was any US military asset," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman after speaking with US military officials in Afghanistan.

"Every indication was that there was no US military involvement in this activity that you've seen," he told reporters.

Asked if the strike could have been launched by aircraft owned by another US agency, such as an intelligence agency, Whitman said he did not speak for other agencies.

"I only talk for the United States military," he said

Witnesses said a US drone aircraft launched a missile on a religious school founded by an old friend of Osama Bin Laden. The Pakistan military does not possess drones.

The unrest in the region has heightened pressure on President Pervez Musharraf to tackle Al Qaida and Taliban insurgents cementing their grip over northwestern Pakistan and its troubled tribal belt.

Musharraf held talks with visiting US Central Command chief Admiral William Fallon in Islamabad yesterday at about the same time as the missile attack in the Islamist stronghold of North Waziristan bordering Afghanistan.

Residents said drones flew over the village of Danday Darpakhel before two missiles hit, one of which destroyed a house formerly owned by Mullah Dadullah, the late Taliban military commander killed in Afghanistan in May 2007.

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