PESHAWAR, (Pakistan), July 28 (AFP): Suspected US missiles killed six people including three Arab militants in Pakistan's tribal belt Monday, as the country's premier prepared for talks with US President George W Bush.
Three missiles struck a house attached to a mosque in the tribal district of South Waziristan, an area bordering Afghanistan that is regarded by Washington as a haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists, officials said.
"Six people are dead and three others injured after three missiles hit a house in Azam Warsak (village)," a senior security official told AFP. He said those killed were three "suspected Arab militants and three young boys."
Residents said that they heard US aircraft and pilotless Predator drones flying above the area before and after the strike.
Pakistani officials said the missiles were not fired by their forces but apparently came from US coalition troops deployed over the border, which lies some 20 kilometres (12 miles) west of Azam Warsak.
"This has been done by coalition forces, we did not do it," another Pakistani security official said.
The identities of those killed were not known. A group of Arabs, believed to be Egyptians, had rented a compound containing the house and the madrassa from a local tribesman, Malik Salat, residents said.
A number of Arab Al-Qaeda operatives are believed to be hiding in the tribal belt, including Osama bin Laden, blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Military officials in Islamabad and the US-led coalition in Afghanistan were not immediately available to comment.
Pakistan has protested over a wave of missile strikes attributed to US-led forces in Afghanistan in recent months which have killed dozens of local people.
Officials including the governor of North West Frontier Province, which adjoins the tribal belt, have warned that the missile strikes are damaging support for Pakistan's new government.
The latest killings took place hours before the scheduled talks between Bush and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani at the White House.
Bush said ahead of the talks that he was "troubled" by the movement of extremists from Pakistan to Afghanistan and would discuss the threat with Gilani, who is making his first White House visit since taking office in March.
Some see Gilani's fledgling democratic government as powerless to act against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants. The Taliban regrouped inside Pakistan after they were removed from power in Afghanistan by a US-led invasion in 2001.
The government launched talks with Taliban militants in the region shortly after defeating political allies of US-backed President Pervez Musharraf in elections in February.
