US missile strike kills 12 in Pakistan

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At least 12 people - mostly Taleban insurgents - have been killed Friday in north-west Pakistan in a suspected US missile strike, Pakistani officials say.
It struck a home before dawn near Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border, reports BBC.
It has emerged that President Bush recently authorised US raids against militants in Pakistan without prior approval from Islamabad.
There is growing concern in Pakistan over unilateral US military action.
Pakistani officials at the scene of the strike told the BBC that the missile was fired by a US drone flying overhead.
They said that most - if not all - of the dead are Taleban militants.
American and international troops are fighting Taleban and al-Qaeda militants close to the scene of the attack in neighbouring Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani army says its troops have killed at least 28 militants in the north-west of the country.
The BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Pakistan says that heavy fighting is continuing around the strategically important area of Loisam in the Bajaur tribal area.
The missile landed in a house in the Tol Khel area on the outskirts of Miranshah, local officials and eyewitnesses told the BBC.
"The pre-dawn strike destroyed the house," news agency AFP quoted an unnamed official as saying.
Another 10 people were wounded, he said.
It would be the fifth cross-border attack since the beginning of this month allegedly carried out by US forces, who have not officially confirmed their involvement.
On Monday, at least 14 people were killed and 15 injured in a suspected US missile strike in North Waziristan, witnesses and officials said.
The attacks follow persistent US accusations that Pakistan is not doing enough to eliminate Taleban and al-Qaeda sanctuaries in the border region.
An unnamed senior Pentagon official told the BBC that at some point within the past two months President Bush issued a classified order to authorise US raids against militants in Pakistan
Pakistan has said it will not allow foreign forces onto its territory and that it will vigorously protect its sovereignty. It says that cross border raids are not the best way of fighting the "war against terror".
The country's Chief of Army Staff, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, said there was "no question of any agreement or understanding with the coalition forces whereby they are allowed to conduct operations on our side of the border".
The upsurge in strikes has alarmed Pakistani military and government officials, who say it seriously undermines their counter-insurgency operations.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani army says it killed at least 28 militants in the north-west of the country on Thursday night.