Missile strike, suicide attack kill six in Pakistan

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ISLAMABAD, Oct 17 (AP): A suspected U.S. missile strike killed a purported foreign militant Thursday in a Pakistani tribal area considered a haven for the Taliban and al-Qaida, while a suicide bombing left five security personnel dead, officials said.
The missile strike in South Waziristan hit a house overrun with foreign and Pakistani militants since last year, when its owner fled the remote, forested area considered a likely hiding place for al-Qaida leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri, officials said.
Two Pakistani intelligence officials told The Associated Press that reports from informants and field agents suggested one foreign militant died and another foreigner was injured. Asked if any al-Qaida leaders had been hit, the officials said Arabs were living in the house but the identities of the victims were not yet clear.
Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media publicly.
A local resident, Javed Mehsud, said he saw a number of unmanned planes in the sky before and after three explosions destroyed the house in the village of Tapargai.
"I could see smoke rising but nobody dared go to look because the spy planes were still over our area," he said by telephone.
U.S. military and CIA drones that patrol the frontier region are believed to have carried out at least a dozen missile strikes against suspected militant targets since August.
The U.S. rarely confirms or denies involvement in the attacks, which have intensified amid frustration in Washington at the escalating insurgency in neighboring Afghanistan.
All of the recent strikes, as well as a highly unusual raid by helicopter-borne commandos, have been in the regions of North and South Waziristan, key strongholds for Islamic militants fighting on both sides of the border.
With Pakistan's army also stepping up operations in its volatile northwest, militants have responded with a sequence of bloody suicide attacks, including last month's truck bombing of Islamabad's Marriott Hotel.