Reuters : Missile strike adds to Pakistan's complications

Missile strike adds to Pakistan's complications

By Simon Cameron-Moore | November 2, 2007

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistani villagers said a missile strike hit houses near a madrasa founded by an old friend of Osama bin Laden's on Friday, killing at least five people.

They told Reuters a drone aircraft carried out the attack. The United States has carried out such operations in the past using drones, which Pakistan does not possess in its armory.

The Pentagon issued a swift denial the U.S. military had conducted a strike, though spokesman Bryan Whitman said he could not speak for U.S. intelligence agencies that also operate the pilotless aircraft.

A Pakistani military spokesman said he had heard there had been an explosion in a house but there had been no action by Pakistani forces.

The sprawling religious school or madrasa near Miranshah, the main town in the Waziristan tribal region, was founded by veteran mujahideen commander Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose ties to bin Laden go back to the 1980s jihad against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

"A drone was flying very low and fired the missile. It destroyed three houses," a Dandi Darpakheil village resident told Reuters on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivities over U.S. operations in Pakistani territory.

Several other villagers corroborated his account.

"I saw human flesh scattered all over the area near the houses," the villager said.

The identity of the victims was not immediately known.

There were unconfirmed reports earlier this year that the aging and infirm Haqqani had died, but his son Sirajuddin has emerged as a major militant figure in his place.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan's internal security has deteriorated sharply in the past few months and the country is trembling from a wave of suicide attacks by al Qaeda-inspired militants.

Political uncertainties abound, with President Pervez Musharraf uncertain whether the Supreme Court will let him keep his re-election victory in parliament last month, because he ran while still army chief.

Pakistan was awash with rumors this week that General Musharraf, who came to power in a 1999 coup, might invoke emergency powers, declare martial law or put off a national election due in January that is supposed to transform the country into a civilian-led democracy.

Stung by criticism it was adding to a sense of instability, the court said on Friday it would reconvene on Monday and try to finish the case quickly, having earlier said it would take a break until November 12 -- just three days before Musharraf's current term is due to expire.

Investors are uneasy over the dicey political situation.

A timid recovery petered out and the Karachi Stock Exchange's benchmark index ended marginally down, having fallen almost three percent the previous day, in a week when there have been more downs than ups in what has been one of Asia's best performing markets.

AMERICAN FRIENDS

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told journalists traveling with her to Turkey that Washington opposed any authoritarian measures and wanted elections to go ahead.

"I think it would be quite obvious that the United States would not be supportive of extra-constitutional means," Rice said.

"Pakistan needs to prepare for and hold free and fair elections."

The missile strike in Waziristan coincided with a visit to Islamabad by the head of the U.S. Central Command Admiral William Fallon, for talks with Musharraf on Friday.

Paramilitary forces are also battling pro-Taliban militants in Swat, a valley in North West Frontier Province where around 180 people have perished in fighting over the past week.

Musharraf's alliance with the United States is a big reason many Pakistanis are fed up with him, but his popularity began to tank when he tried to sack the chief justice in March.

Adjourning on Friday, Justice Javed Iqbal defended the court's independence, after some government ministers raised the possibility of an emergency being declared if Musharraf received an adverse ruling.

"I want to make it clear that nobody on earth can dictate to this court," said Iqbal, who heads the 11-member bench hearing the challenges to Musharraf.

Most diplomats and analysts doubt whether Musharraf's re-election by parliament on October 6 will be ruled invalid by the court. The judges are more likely to bind him to future actions like getting his presidency endorsed by the next parliament.

He has already said he will quit as army chief if he's given a second term, and he's allowed one opposition leader, two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto, back from self-imposed exile to lead her party into the national elections.

He's blocked Nawaz Sharif, the prime minister he ousted, from returning, despite the court's clearance for Sharif to come back.

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