ISLAMABAD (AP) - Suspected U.S. missiles leveled a Taliban compound in northwest Pakistan on Sunday, officials said, killing three people despite militant threats of a wave of suicide bombings if the strikes don’t end.
Meanwhile, a hardline cleric who mediated a deal that imposes Islamic law in a northwest valley in exchange for peace with the Taliban warned that the Pakistani government must enforce the law, not simply make announcements about it.
Pockets of Pakistan’s northwest regions bordering Afghanistan are havens for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters. Many are believed involved in attacks on U.S. and NATO forces across the border, and American officials say the missile strikes are a key tool in taking them out.
Sunday’s suspected strike occurred in South Waziristan tribal region, the main stronghold of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, who is believed allied with the al-Qaida terrorist network.
Shahab Ali Shah, South Waziristan’s top administrative official, said three people died and five were wounded in the Zari Noor village area. The identities of the dead and wounded were not immediately clear.
Haji Gul Zaman, who lives just outside Zari Noor village, said he heard two blasts and saw plumes of smoke rising from the area. Trucks carrying Taliban fighters raced toward the scene, Zaman said.
Since August, the U.S. has escalated its use of drone-fired missiles along Pakistan’s lawless northwestern regions, launching about three dozen. The U.S. rarely discusses or acknowledges the strikes, which are believed fired by unmanned drones operated by the CIA.
The pro-Western Pakistani government has demanded an end to the strikes, saying that although they have killed several militant leaders, they also fan anti-American sentiment and violate the country’s sovereignty.
The latest strike came a day after a suicide car bomber killed 27 people _ most of them security forces _ at a checkpoint in the Hangu town area, another rough-and-tumble region in the northwest.
Responsibility for the bombing was claimed by Hakeemullah Mehsud, a Taliban commander who has vowed to carry out two suicide attacks a week to press for an end to the missile strikes.
“We are meeting our pledge. … We will intensify our attacks if the drone strikes in the tribal areas do not stop,” Mehsud told The Associated Press by telephone from an undisclosed location.
Under intense international pressure, especially from the United States, Pakistan has tried various tactics to crack down on militancy, including military offensives and negotiations.
It recently agreed to impose Islamic law in the northwest’s Swat Valley and surrounding areas in exchange for peace with the Taliban there _ a move that riled human rights activists and drew criticism from the White House.
The cleric who mediated that deal demanded the government take meaningful steps to enforce the new system over the next month, including setting up proper appeals courts in four days. Already, a handful of judges trained in Islamic law have begun hearing cases.
“Mere announcement is not enough to enforce the system,” Sufi Muhammad said at a rally of thousands of supporters in Swat.
The terms of the deal remain murky, but Pakistani officials have insisted an Islamic judicial system in Swat would not echo the harsh rule of the ousted Taliban regime in neighboring Afghanistan.
A variety of militant groups operate in Pakistan’s northwest, and turf wars sometimes break out.
On Sunday evening, Taliban fighters in the Bajur tribal region clashed with supporters of Muhammad, a fight that left three people dead, local government official Faramosh Khan said.
Pakistan’s army staged a monthslong offensive against militants in Bajur, declaring victory a few weeks ago, but rumblings in there in recent days have indicated the insurgency is not fully vanquished.
Maulvi Umar, a spokesman for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan _ or the Pakistani Taliban Movement, an umbrella group headed by Mehsud _ told AP that Sufi Muhammad’s followers were trying to get control of the area by raising their own militia.
“We want to make it clear that only the Tehrik-e-Taliban has a right to hold weapons and dominance in this region,” he said.
But Sufi Muhammad’s son, Rizwan, told AP that their organization had nothing to do with the encounter.
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Associated Press writers Riaz Khan in Peshawar and Habib Khan in Khar contributed to this report.
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