Airstrike hits 12 in Pakistan, Taliban kill dozens

Violence ripped across Pakistan Thursday, as Taliban militants and the Pakistani military, backed by suspected American drones, traded violent deadly attacks in the country’s restive tribal belt and adjoining North West Frontier province (NWFP).

A missile strike fired by a suspected United States drone killed as many as 12 people in the tribal area of North Waziristan, a Taliban stronghold. Taliban fighters carried out a series of attacks: They killed dozens of security personnel in South Waziristan and tribal elders in NWFP. And they bombed a coed school in Peshawar, the provincial capital.

The wave of violence comes as US President Barack Obama and other world leaders attending this week’s United Nations General Assembly in New York pledged more aid and support for Pakistan’s battle against extremism.

Predator drone attacks, while controversial in Pakistan, have become more frequent. The most recent one struck late Thursday, near the compound of a high-level Taliban commander, according to the News International, an English-language Pakistani newspaper:

Sources said that the US drone fired hellfire missiles on the militants’ hideouts at Danday Darpakhel area located in the west here, the headquarter of North Waziristan, which resulted in the death of nine militants and several wounded, while three more corpses were recovered from beneath the debris, taking the death toll in the incident to 12.

All the dead are said to be the Afghans, as the missile had targeted one Afghan citizen Ahmad’s house near Taliban Commander, Jalaluddin Haqqani’s residence.

Just hours before the strike, a Taliban leader told a reporter from the Associated Press that “Pakistan's Taliban movement is stronger than ever despite the killing of its top commander and will stage more suicide attacks if the army launches another offensive against it."

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