US drones kill 6 Pakistani fighters

US missiles killed six Afghan fighters from the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network in Pakistan's tribal district of Kurram in two strikes just minutes apart on Monday, security officials said. Pakistani officials said it was only the fourth time that US drones had hit Kurram, where Haqqani loyalists are believed to have fled as US pressure mounts on Pakistan to launch an offensive on their headquarters in Waziristan. American drones more routinely target Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants in the neighbouring North Waziristan district, where Pakistan has been accused of giving the Haqqani leadership and its 4,000 fighters a de facto safe haven. Washington has called Pakistan's semi-autonomous northwest tribal region the global headquarters of Al-Qaeda, where Taliban and other Al-Qaeda-linked networks need to be defeated if the 10-year war in Afghanistan is ever to end. Two separate US drone strikes destroyed a vehicle travelling through the Kharh Dhand area of Kurram, which borders Afghanistan's eastern province of Paktia. Then minutes later, a nearby compound was hit, local officials said. Pakistani security officials said six Afghan militants were killed. The United States does not officially confirm Predator drone attacks, but its military and the CIA operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy the armed, unmanned aircraft in the region. "All those killed in both strikes were Afghan fighters and were Haqqani's men," a Pakistani official told AFP, adding that the Haqqani militants had been hiding out in the surrounding mountains for "several months". The Haqqani network is considered the most dangerous enemy of US troops in eastern Afghanistan. It was founded by Jalaluddin Haqqani and is run by his son, Sirajuddin, both of them designed "global terrorists" by Washington. The network has been blamed for some of the deadliest anti-US attacks in Afghanistan, including a suicide attack at a US base in the eastern province of Khost in 2009 that killed seven CIA operatives. A total of 17 US drone strikes have now been reported in Pakistan's tribal belt since US Navy SEALs found and killed Osama bin Laden in the army town of Abbottabad on May 2. Relations between Pakistan and the United States, wary at the best of times, have deteriorated sharply since the killing, and Islamabad has demanded an end to the drone strikes. The bin Laden raid humiliated the Pakistani military and invited allegations of incompetence and complicity, while Washington has increasingly demanded that Islamabad take decisive action against the Haqqanis and other terror networks. The drone strikes are hugely unpopular among a Pakistani public deeply opposed to the government's alliance with Washington and sensitive to perceived violations of sovereignty. Hundreds of armed tribesmen on Monday gathered in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, to protest against the strikes, shouting "Death to America" and "Stop drone attacks". "The drone attacks are targeting innocent people, innocent women and children," local tribal elder Malik Shahzada told the gathering. "We will protest in Peshawar and will stage a sit-in in Islamabad if government did not take steps to stop it," he added. Pakistan has lost thousands of soldiers fighting against homegrown militants in its northwest and denies Western allegations that its intelligence services are protecting the Haqqani network or other Afghan Taliban factions. On Monday, officials in the tribal district of Mohmand said dozens of militants attacked the homes of two tribal elders, killing six people in Ziarat Masood village after Pakistani troops started a ground and air offensive. Local administration official Zabit Khan told AFP that up to 70 militants, armed with rockets, hand grenades and Kalashnikov rifles, attacked the two houses late Sunday and that sons of the tribal elders were among the dead. Another local official described the attack as possible retaliation for Pakistani operations to evict militants from the stronghold of Walidad in Mohmand, which the military on Sunday said killed 25 rebels.