Uzbeks said among dead in Pakistani border attack

Islamabad, Jun 20: Several Uzbeks were among 32 militants killed in an apparent missile attack in a Pakistani tribal region on the Afghan border this week, a senior government official said today.

Missiles, possibly fired by US forces in Afghanistan, hit a suspected militant training base in a hamlet in the mountainous North Waziristan tribal region yesterday.

''Definitely, there are foreigners among the dead, Uzbeks, but at the moment I can't tell you how many,'' said a senior official who declined to be identified.

Pakistani military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said there had been an explosion in the area but denied missiles caused it and said the army had not carried out any operations there.

He suggested the explosion occurred while militants were making a bomb.

Such explanations have been offered in the past when US forces in Afghanistan fired missiles at targets on Pakistani territory.

Pakistan's anti-terror alliance with the United States is unpopular with many Pakistanis and the government is sensitive to any report of foreign forces carrying out operations in its territory or airspace.

Many members and supporters of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda, including some Uzbeks and other foreigners, as well as Taliban members fled to North Waziristan after US-led forces defeated Afghanistan's Taliban government in 2001.

Afghanistan and US military officials say the militants direct their intensified insurgency on Afghanistan, and plot violence elsewhere, from sanctuaries on the Pakistani side of the border, including in North Waziristan.

The senior Pakistani official said he did not know if the militants killed yesterday were members of al Qaeda.

A resident of the area said three missiles had been fired but denied those killed were militants. He said 34 religious students had been killed.

''It's a lie, there were no militants,'' said Mohammad Ameer, a caretaker at the Zia-ul-Islam Islamic seminary, about 10 km from the site of the blasts.

''They were students at lessons in a tent when three missiles hit them. Soon after, two drone aircraft hovered over the area for some time,'' he said.

In Islamabad, opposition members walked out of parliament in a protest against the attack.

Last September, the government struck a peace deal in North Waziristan which authorities said was aimed at giving power to tribal leaders and isolating the militants.

Critics said the pact created a sanctuary for militants but nevertheless, the level of violence in North Waziristan has fallen sharply since then.

REUTERS>