Bloomberg

U.S. Missile Strike Kills 24 Militants in Pakistan’s Waziristan

March 17, 2011, 8:22 AM EDT

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By Anwar Shakir

March 17 (Bloomberg) -- A missile attack by U.S. pilotless aircraft killed at least 24 Islamic militant guerrillas at a training center in North Waziristan, on the Afghan border, a Pakistani army press officer said.

Missiles struck in Datta Khel, an area of rocky mountains, said the officer, speaking by phone in the northwestern provincial capital of Peshawar. He said his orders don’t permit him to be cited by name.

The men killed were fighters of a local Pakistani Taliban commander, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who dominates Datta Khel, about 16 kilometers (10 miles) east of North Waziristan’s main town, Miranshah, said Haroon Khan, a rescue worker reached by phone in Miranshah.

Under Bahadur, Datta Khel is a center for militants of Afghan Taliban commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, as well as al-Qaeda, according to Bill Roggio, editor of the Long War Journal, an independent, U.S.-based organization that monitors the U.S. military campaigns against militant groups.

The missile strike was the fifth in four days in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal zone along the Afghan border, according to a database of attacks maintained by the journal. The U.S. paused missile attacks in the zone from Jan. 23 until Feb. 20, it said.

--With assistance from James Rupert in New Delhi. Editor: Mark Williams

To contact the reporter on this story: Anwar Shakir at ashakir1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg in Hong Kong at phirschberg@bloomberg.net

(source: bloomberg)