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Two killed in Pakistan missile attack: security official

By admin | July 2, 2008

Two people were killed and two wounded Wednesday when a missile fired from Afghanistan landed near a border post in a Pakistani tribal area, a senior security official said.

It was not clear if the missile that hit the troubled Bajaur district was launched by Taliban militants in Afghanistan or international forces fighting them, the official said.

The missile apparently “fired from the eastern Afghan province of Kunar landed near a Pakistani check post” in the Sakhi Pass area of the tribal district, senior security official Javed Khan told AFP.

It killed an Afghan refugee and a local resident. Two others including a security official and a taxi driver were wounded, residents and local officials said.

However a government official later said it was a mortar attack mounted by militants from within the Pakistan territory.

“Miscreants fired three to four mortar rounds on the Fazal complex (post) from the general area of Bango Sar, Bajaur,” the official said, requesting anonymity.

“Security forces retaliated with mortar fire,” he said without giving further details.

Last month 11 Pakistani troops were killed and nine wounded in a missile strike in the Mohmand tribal district bordering Afghanistan. Pakistan blamed US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan and condemned the attack as an “unprovoked and cowardly act.”

Pakistan has protested over a series of missile strikes attributed to US-led forces in Afghanistan in recent months, including one in Bajaur region in May that killed more than a dozen people.

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