Pakistan says U.S. missile attack near Afghan border kills 9
The strike in the tribal areas may have killed Islamic insurgents, Pakistani officials say.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- In what could herald as an intensified U.S. campaign against Islamic insurgents in Pakistan's tribal areas, a suspected American missile attack killed at least nine people near the Afghan border, Pakistani officials said today.
It was not immediately known whether any senior insurgent figures were among the dead, but local officials in the South Waziristan tribal agency said those killed included "foreigners" -- often used to mean Al Qaeda operatives and commanders from outside Pakistan.
The missile strike, coupled with a recent bout of intense fighting in Bajur, another tribal area abutting the Afghan border, came as Pakistan wrestled with a growing crisis over demands that President Pervez Musharraf step down or face impeachment. A third provincial assembly, this one in southern Sindh province, overwhelmingly approved a nonbinding resolution today calling on the president to agree to a vote of confidence by regional and national lawmakers or relinquish his post. Two other regional parliaments approved a similar resolution earlier this week.
Musharraf, a longtime U.S. ally who until late last year was also chief of Pakistan's military, has so far resisted attempts by the 5-month-old ruling coalition, made up of former opposition figures, to oust him.
The president, a onetime elite commando, has shown no signs of acquiescing to critics' demands. But some longtime allies have been deserting him or distancing themselves as public pressure mounts for him to step aside. Pakistani media reports for days have been rife with speculation that Musharraf's resignation is imminent.
Pakistan's powerful army, now led by onetime Musharraf protégé Gen. Ashfaq Kayani, has signaled it will seek to remain neutral in the political confrontation. In the past, Pakistan's military has often intervened when it perceives civilian governments as being in turmoil.
The escalating political tensions in Pakistan paralleled the most serious outbreak of fighting in months along the Afghan frontier. Thousands of refugees have fled amid battles between government forces and militants holed up in the arid, rugged border zone, where the writ of law carries little force.
