PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) — A suspected US missile strike destroyed an Al-Qaeda and Taliban hideout in a Pakistani tribal area Thursday, killing 13 alleged militants including several Arabs, security officials said.
Residents of Azam Warsak village in South Waziristan told AFP that a house was blown up by a missile fired from a pilotless drone and the loud blast was heard miles (kilometres) away in the rugged valley.
US drones have launched several strikes on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border targeting members of Osama bin Laden's network, although Islamabad never confirms such attacks due to issues of national sovereignty.
"A house used as a den by Al-Qaeda and Afghan Taliban militants was hit by a missile. Thirteen people were killed and around 10 were wounded," a senior Pakistani security official told AFP.
"There was no immediate information about the presence of any high-value target," the official said.
A security source based in the northwestern city of Peshawar, which adjoins the lawless tribal belt, said the missile was fired by a US drone at about 2:00 am Thursday (2100 GMT Wednesday).
Another security official said most of the dead were Arabs.
The militants were using the house as an "operational base" for attacks on NATO-led and US troops in Afghanistan, as well as a meeting place for Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants, the official said.
Armed militants cordoned off the site after the missile strike, residents said. They said four unidentified "guests" had arrived late Wednesday at the destroyed house, although their identities were not known.
South Waziristan is also the base of Baitullah Mehsud, an Al-Qaeda-linked warlord accused by Pakistan of masterminding the December slaying of former premier Benazir Bhutto, but officials said the strike was not in the area he commands.
A spokesman for the US-led coalition force based in Afghanistan said it had "no reports" that either it or the separate NATO-headed force were involved in the strike.
In its first official comment, the Pakistani military said late Thursday that the deaths were caused by an explosion at a hideout in the area.
"As per our information it was an explosion caused by explosive material in a house," chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP.
The blast reportedly killed 10 to 12 people, he said, adding that it was not clear if all those who died were foreigners.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan does not confirm US involvement in military action in the tribal belt since Islamabad has repeatedly stated that it will not allow foreign forces to operate on its soil.
But US forces have carried out several strikes in the past.
Amid pressure on President Pervez Musharraf to crack down on Al-Qaeda safe havens in Pakistan, the New York Times reported last week that US officials recently reached a "quiet understanding" with him to intensify such strikes.
The new arrangements included attacks by armed Predator drones operating from a secret base inside Pakistan, rather than Afghanistan.
Al-Qaeda number two Ayman Al-Zawahiri vowed to avenge the missile strike that killed al-Libi in a videotape message broadcast on an Islamist website on Wednesday.
"No chief of ours has died a natural death. Nor has our blood been spilled without a response," he said in the 10-minute recording which had English subtitles and was posted on the Al-Ekhlaas website.
A US Predator targeted al-Zawahiri in January 2006, killing several rebels and civilians but missing him and sparking protests in Pakistan.
Thousands of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants fled into Pakistan's tribal belt after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
The air strikes are also a political issue in the United States, where White House hopeful Hillary Clinton slammed Democratic rival Barack Obama Tuesday for saying he would order raids against Al-Qaeda in Pakistan if Musharraf failed to act.
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