Peshawar: Just a day after killing 11 Al
Qaeda and Taliban terrorists, US drones swooped again on the
Pakistan's restive North Waziristan tribal region eliminating
ten more militants.
Unmanned US predators and reapers targetted the villages
of Humzoni and Datta Khel firing missiles at a vehicle being
used by militants and a rebel hideout in North West Pakistan
which also left scores wounded, local officials were quoted by
Pak TV channels as saying.
This was the third drone attack in last 24 hours bringing
the toll of terrorists killed to 21. Officials fear that it
could rise higher as many people were suspected to be trapped
in the debris and most of those killed are believed to be Arab
fighters of Al Qaeda.
The concentrated wave of drone attacks, came as
apparently the US and Pakistani intelligence suspected that a
high value Al Qaeda target had been taken out in the first
attacks yesterday.
After yesterday's attack, Arab fighters from Al Qaeda
were seen establishing a three kilometre cordon around the
strike site in Datta Khel.
"The presence of large number of Arabs indicates that a
high value target may have been present", US War Journal
reported.
It said, the Arab Al Qaeda fighters could be from the
Black Guard, praetorians used to guard Al Qaeda's top
commanders including Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri or
Sheikh Saeed al Masri, the three of the world's most wanted
men.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, March 17, 2010, 12:56