Latest US strike in Pakistan angers Taliban

Officials theorize top militant killed

Activists in Hyderabad, Pakistan, burned a US flag at a rally yesterday to condemn US missile strikes in tribal areas. (Pervez Masih/AP Photo)

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - The Taliban are furious about the latest apparent US missile strike in Pakistan, indicating a senior militant may be among two dozen people killed, officials and residents said yesterday.

The attack Friday on the North Waziristan tribal region was believed to have killed several Arab fighters but government officials have been notably quiet.

However, two Pakistani intelligence officials said insurgents were moving aggressively in the area while using harsh language against local residents, including calling them "salable commodities" - an accusation of spying.

The intelligence officials, who said their information came from informants and field agents, interpreted the Taliban's anger as a sign that a senior militant may have been among at least 24 people killed. But that has not been confirmed, said the officials, who requested anonymity.

The United States has ramped up cross-border strikes that target alleged Al Qaeda and Taliban hide-outs in Pakistan's tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. Pakistani leaders have condemned the attacks as violations of their country's sovereignty.

Pakistan's chief army spokesman, Major General Athar Abbas, said at least 20 people died in the attack, eight of them foreign militants.

Two residents in the area targeted Friday said Taliban fighters warned people not to discuss the missile strike or inspect the rubble at the site. The residents requested anonymity for fear of Taliban retribution.

The United States rarely acknowledges cross-border attacks inside Pakistani territory by forces from Afghanistan. A US military spokesman in Afghanistan, 1st Lieutenant Nathan Perry, did not deny US involvement but said he had "no information to give."

Extremists based in Pakistan's border regions have been blamed for attacks on American and NATO forces in Afghanistan and for violence inside Pakistan. Al Qaeda leaders including Osama bin Laden are believed to be hiding somewhere in the lawless tribal regions along the border.

Pakistan has been carrying out its own operations against insurgents in the northwest.

Security forces yesterday killed two alleged Taliban commanders in Swat, one of whom was believed to be affiliated with Al Qaeda, said Major Nasir Ali, an army spokesman.

In the Bajur tribal region, overnight clashes with security forces killed five suspected militants, police official Fazl Rabi said. A bomb blast yesterday wounded five people in a compound where tribal elders were meeting to discuss ways to rid the area of militants, Rabi said.