PESHAWAR: Three American missile attacks killed 54 alleged militants Friday close to the Afghan border, an unusually high number of victims that included commanders of a Taliban-allied group that were holding a meeting, Pakistani officials said. The attacks took place in the Khyber tribal region, which has been rarely struck by American missiles before over the last three years. That could indicate a possible expansion of the CIA-led covert campaign of drone strikes inside Pakistani territory. The first strike targeted two vehicles in the Sandana area of the Tirah Valley, killing seven militants and wounding another nine. Later, missiles hit a compound in Speen Darang village where the Lashkar-e-Islam, a Taliban affiliate known to be strong in Khyber, were meeting, killing 32 people, among them commanders. The third strike took place in Narai Baba village and killed 15 militants, the officials said. Human rights groups say there are significant numbers of civilian casualties in the attacks. On Thursday, US President Obama urged Pakistan to do more in tackling extremists in the border lands. Pakistan's army has moved into several tribal regions over the last two years, but says it lacks the troops to launch a North Waziristan operation anytime soon and hold gains it has made elsewhere. US Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter said the United States would like the Pakistani army to move into North Waziristan “tomorrow” but that he believed Islamabad's stated reasons for not attacking the region immediately. “I think there is a capacity issue,” Munter told reporters Friday. Also Friday, police said nine people were killed by mortar rounds fired by suspected Sunni extremists in two attacks in the northwest. The presumed targets in Hangu district and the nearby tribal area of Kurram were Shiites, said Hangu police chief Abdur Rasheed. In Hangu, three mortars missed a Shiite mosque, hitting a house, killing six and wounding eight. In Kurram, a mortar hit a house, killing three, he said. Meanwhile, a US intelligence official said the CIA's top spy in Pakistan, who helps oversee drone strikes against militants, has been forced to leave the country amid threats to his life. The official did not provide further details about the abrupt departure of the CIA's station chief. But the New York Times reported the spy was pulled out after his name – classified as secret – was revealed in a lawsuit by a Pakistani man, who alleges his son and brother were killed in a drone bombing raid. “This exceptional officer – who had already served beyond a regular tour – is returning to the United States after the decision was made that terrorist threats against him in Pakistan were of such a serious nature that it would be imprudent not to act,” the official said.
