DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - A suspected U.S. missile strike targeting an alleged militant gathering point killed at least nine people, including foreigners, in northwestern Pakistan, military and intelligence officials said Wednesday.
At least four missiles struck a compound in a remote and mountainous area near Angore Adda in the South Waziristan tribal region late Tuesday, the officials told The Associated Press.
The tribal regions are considered havens for al-Qaida and Taliban-linked militants, and the U.S. has pushed Pakistan to root out the insurgents in those semi-autonomous areas bordering Afghanistan.
The military official said at least nine people died. Two intelligence officials said between 22 and 25 people died, including Arabs, Turkmen and Pakistani militants in what they believed was a U.S. missile strike launched from Afghanistan.
They said the camp is linked to the militant group of Afghan warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose followers are fighting U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. They said it was not clear if the camp leader, an Afghan identified as Commander Zangeer, or senior militants were killed.
The intelligence officials said their information on the attack came from local informants.
A U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan denied involvement. "I've got no reports of any border incidents, any cross-border incidents, so it wasn't us," U.S. 1st Lt. Nathan Perry said.
A denial does not rule out U.S. involvement, including by the CIA, which is believed to have conducted previous such strikes using Predator drones. Pakistan has in the past protested such strikes as violations of its sovereignty.
Pakistan's army spokesman was not immediately available to comment Wednesday. The other officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media.
Suspected U.S. missile strikes have killed at least two senior al-Qaida militants inside Pakistan this year, including an renowned Egyptian explosives and poison expert, Abu Khabab al-Masri, who died in a strike in South Waziristan in late July.
Meanwhile, in the Khyber tribal region early Wednesday, Haji Namdar, the leader of the outlawed Vice and Virtue Movement, was shot dead by unknown gunmen who attacked his group's headquarters, his spokesman said.
Namdar died of his wounds after he was shifted to a local hospital from the shooting in Barqambarkhel, about seven miles from the region's main town of Bara, Munsaf Khan said.
Namdar's supporters captured two suspects after the shooting, Khan said. He refused to identify the suspects and said it was too early to say who was behind the attack.
Government officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
The Vice and Virtue Movement was among three groups banned in June when security forces launched an operation to curb the growing influence of Islamic militants in Khyber, amid concern they threatened the main northwestern city of Peshawar. Khyber also is home to a key supply route for U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
