Six killed, 20 injured in missile strikes by U.S. drones in

Islamabad, Sep 8 (PTI) Six persons, including three
women, were killed and 20 others injured in a missile strike
by unmanned U.S. drones on a house and a seminary linked to a
key Taliban commander Jalauddin Haqqani in Pakistan's restive
North Waziristan tribal region Monday.

The suspected drones operated by the U.S.-led forces in
Afghanistan fired six to seven guided missiles at the seminary
in Tanda Darpakhel, two kilometres from Miranshah, the
headquarters of North Waziristan.

Four missiles hit a madrassa run by senior Taliban leader
Jalaluddin Haqqani while three hit nearby houses. State-run
A.P.P. news agency quoted official sources and local residents
as saying.
Three female seminary students and three labourers were
among the dead, official sources said, but other sources said
that among the killed were three militants.

Whether Haqqani, who is a close aide of fugitive Taliban
leader Mullah Omar was present in the area or not at the time
of the strike, was not known.

The Pasthun leader of Khost in Afghanistan has not seen
since the fall of the Taliban regime in Kabul in 2001.

Taliban fighters surrounded the area around the madrassa
and did not allow people to approach the site. North and South
Waziristan tribal regions are considered strongholds of the
Pakistani Taliban led by Baitullah Mehsud.

Since last week, Pakistan's tribal belt has witnessed a
sharp increase in attacks by drones operated by U.S.-led
coalition forces in Afghanistan. More than 40 people have died
in these attacks.

Twenty people, a majority of them women and children,
were killed in a raid in South Waziristan by gunship
helicopters and commandos of the coalition forces on September
three.

That attack marked the first time that US-led ground
forces from Afghanistan had intruded into Pakistan.