Pakistani intelligence officials and witnesses say a suspected U.S.
missile strike has killed at least five suspected militants in
Pakistan's northwestern tribal region.
Officials say a missile
fired from a drone (pilotless aircraft) Friday hit a home in North
Waziristan, roughly 30 kilometers from the main town of Miranshah.
The
United States is suspected of carrying out dozens of drone air strikes
targeting militants in the region over the past year. Most of the
recent attacks have hit targets in the stronghold of Pakistani Taliban
commander Baitullah Mehsud in the neighboring South Waziristan tribal
region.
In another development, the United Nations refugee
agency says it has temporarily relocated a number of its aid workers
from northwestern Pakistan, after gunmen killed a staff member Zill-e
Usman on Thursday in the Katcha Gari camp.
Humanitarian workers
have been providing aid to the nearly two million people displaced by
Pakistan's military offensive against militants in the northwest.
Pakistani officials said Friday at least 10,000 of those displaced by
the fighting have returned to their homes in Swat Valley in recent days.
The military said Friday two soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in the region.
Militants
have carried out attacks in retaliation for the military offensive.
Friday, two tankers were damaged by two separate bombs in the Khyber
tribal region. The tankers were carrying fuel for NATO troops in
Afghanistan.
In other news, the head of the U.N. commission
Heraldo Munoz investigating the assassination of former Pakistani Prime
Minister Benazir Bhutto said the probe was limited to fact-finding and
was not a criminal investigation.
The commission was set up at
the request of Ms. Bhutto's party. The former prime minister was
killed in an attack during an election rally in the city of
Rawalpindi in December of 2007. Then-president Pervez Musharraf and
the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency blamed Baitullah Mehsud for her
killing.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
