Fatal missile strike kills 6 in Pakistan

A SUSPECTED US missile strike killed at least six people, hours after the top US military officer told Pakistani leaders that America respected Pakistan’s sovereignty amid a frenzy over American strikes into Pakistan’s north-west.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials said several missiles hit a compound in the south Waziristan tribal region yesterday evening.

The officials said the target was a base for Taliban militants and Hezb-i-Islami, another group fighting US and government troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.

They said informants in the area had reported that six people were dead and three more injured.

The officials said an unmanned drone of the type used by the CIA and US forces in Afghanistan was heard in the area shortly before the attack.

The American embassy had earlier said that Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff had vowed to respect Pakistan’s sovereignty — a commitment apparently aimed at easing controversy over a rash of US attacks on militant havens near the border with Afghanistan.

Mullen arrived on the same day that Pakistan’s army said its forces have orders to open fire if US troops launch another raid across the border, raising the stakes in a dispute over how to tackle militant havens in Pakistan’s border zone.