A US missile attack killed at least nine militants at a South Waziristan training camp today ahead of a planned ground offensive by the Pakistani army on the mountainous tribal region.
Two or three pilotless American aircraft fired at least four missiles at a camp near the village of Raghzai, witnesses said. A building was destroyed and four local militants and five foreigners, including Arabs and Turkmenistan nationals, are thought to have been killed.
The attack coincided with Pakistani artillery and air strikes and an economic blockade on the region, which is home to Baitullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taleban leader, and considered the likely hiding place of Osama bin Laden.
A local intelligence official told The Times that Taleban militants surrounded the camp after the attack and blocked all access.
The camp was on the edge of the area of South Waziristan controlled by Mr Mehsud, a former bodybuilder in his late 30s who is believed to command 10,000 men and is blamed for a string of recent suicide-bombings.
Pakistan’s Government announced this week that it had ordered its army to open a new front against Mr Mehsud, seven weeks after launching an assault on the Taleban in the northwestern region of Swat.
However, yesterday’s target was inside the territory of Mullah Nazir, another militant leader who has close links to Mullah Omar, the Afghan Taleban leader, and recently formed a loose alliance with Mr Mehsud.
US and British officials say Mullah Nazir has launched regular attacks on US and Nato forces over the border in Afghanistan, but Pakistani officials do not consider him a threat to Pakistan.
Pakistani authorities are now negotiating with Mullah Nazir and Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a Taleban commander in North Waziristan, to discourage them from helping Mr Mehsud against the army, according to Pakistani military sources.
Local officials say the camp in Raghzai was run by one of Mullah Nazir’s lieutenants — a man named Wali Mohammed, who is also known as Malang Wazir. They said it was not immediately clear if Wali was among the dead and locals were still searching the ruins of the camp for more casualties.
The US has carried out about 40 drone air strikes since the beginning of last year, killing more than 335 people, including many foreign militants, according to Pakistani officials.
US officials do not usually confirm individual drone attacks in Pakistan, but the Pentagon and the CIA are the only forces in the region that use the unmanned drones.
An investigation by The Times in February revealed that the CIA was secretly using the Shamsi airbase in the southwestern province of Baluchistan to launch the drones.
Pakistan has repeatedly protested in public about the drone strikes, saying they violate its national sovereignty, cause hundreds of civilian casualties, and fuel anti-American sentiment in the region.
But US officials say there is an understanding between the two governments that Pakistan will allow the drone strikes, even while objecting to them publicly.
Among those killed in drone attacks on Waziristan last year was Rashid Rauf, a Briton with al-Qaeda links and the suspected ringleader of a 2006 plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic.
In January, a US drone killed three foreign fighters in South Waziristan, according to Pakistan agents. A week later, a US counter-terrorism official said that Usama al-Kini, al Qaeda’s operational chief, had been killed with an aide in South Waziristan.