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U.S. Drones Kill 15 On Pakistan Border

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The New York Times

Published: January 24, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Two missile attacks launched from remotely piloted U.S. aircraft killed at least 15 people in western Pakistan on Friday. The strikes suggested that the strategy of using drones to kill militants inside Pakistan's own borders would continue under President Barack Obama.

Predator drones operated by the CIA have carried out more than 30 missile attacks since last summer against members of al-Qaida and other terrorism suspects deep in their enclaves on the Pakistani side of the border with Afghanistan.

The attacks have also killed civilians, however, enraging Pakistanis and making it harder for the country's shaky government to win support for its own military operations against Taliban guerrillas in the country's border region.

U.S. officials in Washington said there were no immediate signs that the strikes Friday had killed any senior al-Qaida leaders. They said the attacks for the moment dispelled any notion that Obama would rein in the Predator attacks.

Friday's missile attacks hit Waziristan, a remote and mountainous region completely controlled by the Taliban. It is part of Pakistan's semiautonomous Federally Administered Tribal Areas along the Afghan border.

The first attack struck a village known as Mir Ali in North Waziristan late in the afternoon. In a statement, Pakistani government officials said the attack destroyed the house of a man identified as Khalil Dawar and killed eight people. The statement said militants had surrounded the area and retrieved the bodies.

In the second attack, missiles struck a house near Wana in South Waziristan, killing seven, according to local accounts and Pakistani news reports. The reports said three of the dead were children.

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