12 die in Pak after alleged US army attack

The drone fired several missiles at a local house of a tribesman at Tul Khel area in North Waziristan before dawn, witnesses said. Tul Khel is located in mountains about a Kilometre from Miranshah, the headquarters of North Waziristan.

Twelve people, including women and children, were killed while eight others were injured. The wounded were taken to a hospital in Miranshah.

Officials were quoted by TV channels as saying that the house of an Al Badr Mujahideen commander Shahdam was targeted in the attack.

Witnesses also said they had heard drones flying over the area before the attack. It was the second such strike in North Waziristan in three days. US drones fired a volley of missiles at a seminary run by senior Taliban leader Jalaluddin Haqqani on September 9, killing 20 people, including three to four top Al-Qaeda operatives.

He also said that such attacks would prove counter-productive. Military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas said on Thursday that the Pakistan Army had been given orders to retaliate against attacks by foreign forces.

A decision on retaliatory action would be taken at the appropriate time, he added. Some of the 12 dead were believed to be rebel fighters, reports said, adding that the house targeted by the missile in Tul Khel area had been rented by an Afghan militant organisation, Al Badr and was being used as an office.

Al Badr is the organisation run by former Mujahideen Commander Gulbuddin Hekmatyar and has previously conducted operations against Afghan and international forces across the border.

Hekmatyar was briefly prime minister of Afghanistan after the ouster of late President Najibullah in the 1990s and has backed Taliban since the regime was removed from power following US-led invasion of the country in 2001 post 9-11 attacks.