US missile strikes kill 24 in Pak tribal region

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PESHAWAR, Mar 13 (Reuters): Taliban militants recovered 24 bodies and were searching for more Friday, hours after suspected US drones destroyed a camp in Pakistan's northwestern region, militants and officials said.

Four missiles believed to have been fired by at least two pilotless US drone aircraft Thursday evening hit a militant hideout and training camp in the Kurram tribal region on the Afghan border.

Soon after the attack a villager in the Barjo area said 14 people had been killed but an intelligence official and a Taliban official said Friday the toll had gone up as militants sifted through the rubble of the seven-room training compound.

"We've so far found 24 bodies in the debris and we're still looking," a Taliban official in the ethnic Pashtun region said by telephone. He declined to be identified.