MIR ALI, Pakistan — A suspected U.S. missile strike killed three people Saturday in a northwest Pakistani tribal region where militants focused on fighting the West in Afghanistan are concentrated, two Pakistani intelligence officials said.
In neighboring Afghanistan, NATO reported that a heavily armed Taliban commander was killed Saturday during a pre-dawn shootout at a mosque and that an American service member was killed in a separate attack.
The Pakistan strike was apparently the latest in a lengthy campaign of such attacks by the United States, which rarely discusses the covert program but has in the past said it has taken out several top al-Qaida operatives. Pakistan publicly opposes the strikes but is believed to secretly aid them.
Saturday’s strike, which occurred in the Babar Raghzai area of North Waziristan, also wounded two people, the officials said. The identities of the dead were not immediately clear. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to media on the record.
The area targeted is used by militants from two major factions that are battling U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan - the Haqqani network and the militants of warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur.
U.S. missile strikes in North Waziristan are sensitive largely because Pakistan has a truce with Bahadur. He agreed to stay on the sidelines as the Pakistani army has waged an offensive in South Waziristan against the Pakistani Taliban, a group that has focused on attacking the Pakistani state.
Missile strikes on his territory could endanger that deal, analysts have said. In the past, however, the U.S. has indicated it will not hesitate to launch the drone-fired missiles if it tracks down an important target.
The South Waziristan ground offensive was launched in mid-October, but many leaders of the Pakistani Taliban are believed to have fled to other parts of the lawless tribal belt - including North Waziristan and the Orakzai tribal regions.
Information from the conflict zones is difficult to independently verify because of restricted access.
The operation in South Waziristan has coincided with a spike in militant attacks in Pakistan, putting the country on edge as more than 500 people have died since October.
Also Saturday, a local government official said the Taliban had beheaded a tribal elder who fought against them in the Bajur tribal region. The remains of 45-year-old Gul Mohammad was found in Mamund town near a road, Faramosh Khan said.
A note from the Pakistani Taliban attached to the body accused the elder of spying on militants.
The Afghan Taliban commander was killed Saturday by a joint Afghan-international force searching for an insurgent believed responsible for planning attacks and buying weapons and parts for making bombs, the international coalition said. When the joint force approached the compound in Wardak province, the commander, who was armed with grenades and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, ran to a nearby mosque.
Afghan security forces surrounded the mosque outside the town of Pirdad in the Nirkh district and called for him to surrender. When he didn’t, they went inside.
“The Taliban commander opened fire with his AK-47 while in the mosque and was killed by the Afghan security force,” NATO said in a statement.
Abdul Haq, acting police commander of Nirkh province, said the shooting actually occurred in the mosque compound not inside the mosque itself. The shootout was about 3 a.m.
“As the Afghan forces were about to enter the mosque, he escaped through a window,” Haq said. “For the second time, the Afghan forces shouted at him to stop. He didn’t, and they opened fire on him, and he was killed. He was not killed inside the mosque, but in the mosque compound.”
Separately, NATO said an American service member died after a roadside bomb attack Friday in southern Afghanistan. No other details were disclosed.
Information for this article was contributed by Rahim Faiez, Anwarullah Khan and Ashraf Khan of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 11 on 12/27/2009