Huge US missile strike hits Taliban traning camp

Dawn:

US drones fired a barrage of 12 missiles, destroying a training camp for extremist fighters in Pakistan's tribal belt and killing 14 militants on Tuesday, security officials said.

It was the second strike in the same mountainous area close to the Afghan border since Sunday, when the United States accused the Pakistani Taliban of being behind a plot to detonate a car bomb in Times Square 10 days ago, reports AFP.

The training camp was run by militants attached to Taliban-linked Afghan warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who is reputed to control up to 2,000 fighters who attack US-led forces over the border in Afghanistan, officials said.

The compound was in the Lowara Mandi area of North Waziristan district, seen as a fortress of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal badlands.

“According to the latest reports we have, a total of 14 militants were killed. They targeted a compound and vehicles parked outside the house,” one senior Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

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The nationalities of the dead were not immediately clear, nor was there any information on any possible high-value targets.

A local official described the training camp at Inzarkas village as a collection of temporary mud-brick homes about 50 kilometres west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan.

The botched May 1 New York bomb plot, which US officials say Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan helped facilitate, has thrown the spotlight on militant networks dug into the tribal belt outside government control.

Washington has branded the rugged district a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous place on earth, where officials say extremists hatch attacks on US-led troops fighting in Afghanistan and on cities abroad.

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The AP says up to 18 missiles were used in the attack. The high number of missiles suggest that Reaper drones were used against what was perceived to be high value targets. It could have been the training camp used for the NY bomber.

Bill Roggio has more on the attack.

The NY Times reports:

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The resident said that six drones had been seen over Datta Khel and at least four were still hovering over the area after the attack in the early hours of Tuesday.

The militants killed in the attack belonged to the forces of Sadiq Noor, a commander who is loyal to the Haqqani network that specializes in operations in Afghanistan, the resident said.

Militants loyal to Saqiq Noor staged an ambush last month against Pakistani soldiers based in North Waziristan that killed at least seven soldiers, security officials said.

The Times says there is no direct connection to the NY bomber and this strike. They say ther ewere several tents hit in the strike. The enemy is no longer welcome in homes in the area so they are having to use temporary facilities like the tents.