Hellfire hits Taliban stronghold

Reuters/Washington Post:

A suspected U.S. drone aircraft fired a missile on Sunday killing three militants in northwest Pakistan, while elsewhere in the region, a bomb blast in a market killed seven people, officials said.

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The strike on Sunday was in Laddah, in the South Waziristan region, about 60 km (40 miles) north of the region's main town of Wana, and a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.

"The missile destroyed the vehicle and I saw three bodies lying next to it," ethnic Pashtun tribal leader Habibullah Mehsud told Reuters by telephone from the region on the Afghan border.

A government official in the region confirmed the attack, saying drones had been flying over South Waziristan since early in the morning.

Pakistani warplanes struck another Mehsud stronghold on Saturday in retaliation for the killing of an anti-Taliban cleric in a suicide bomb attack in the city of Lahore the previous day, the military said.

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Apparently the missile hit a vehicle carrying some Mehsud cohorts. It will probably take a few days to get the names of the targets. It is interesting that the Pakistan military is also bombing the area now too. Their F-16s may now be fitted with precision munitions too, although that has not been acknowledged I don't think. The Pakistan attack does seem to validate our UAV attacks.

Update: This document says Pakistan did get the precision armament upgrades. Hat tip to Graham.