US missile strike, clash kill 21 in Pakistan

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WANA, Aug 27 (Reuters): Missiles believed to have been fired by a US drone aircraft struck a militant hideout killing six fighters in Pakistan's South Waziristan tribal region Thursday, intelligence officials said.
Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a similar attack in the same region on August 5.
Meanwhile, militants ambushed troops on a dusty road in a volatile tribal region of Pakistan, triggering an intense firefight that killed at least nine attackers and four soldiers, two officials said Thursday.
The clash took place Wednesday in the stronghold of a senior Taliban commander, Waliur Rehman, in the South Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border. Troops backed by helicopter gunships targeted militant hideouts in the region, an intelligence official and an army officer said.
Taliban members say they selected Hakimullah Mehsud as the group's new leader, while Rehman was appointed Taliban leader in South Waziristan, where most of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan's fighters - believed to number as many as 25,000 - are based.
Pakistan has deployed more than 100,000 troops to the regions near the Afghan border since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
Troops and police imposed a curfew throughout Thursday and launched an operation in the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan to recover illegal weapons, said police chief Saeedullah Marwat.
The operation follows sporadic clashes over the past few months between majority Sunni and minority Shiite Muslims in the area, Marwat said.