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| India-Pakistan |
| Taliban shoot two US spies in North Waziristan |
| 2010-01-31 |
| [Dawn] Taliban militants shot dead two men in Pakistan's restive northwest tribal belt after accusing them of spying for the United States, officials said Saturday. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found dumped by the side of a road in Datta Khel region, 15 kilometres (nine miles) south of Miranshah, the main town in the tribal North Waziristan region, local police officer Qayyum Khan told AFP. They were local tribesmen who had been captured last month after a drone attack in the region killed 12 people, he said. A note found near the bodies said "both were executed after an investigation showed they had been spying for US forces" operating across the border in Afghanistan. Two security officials and local tribesmen confirmed the incidents. Militants frequently kidnap and kill tribesmen, accusing them of spying for the Pakistani government or US forces in Afghanistan, where Taliban fighters are leading an insurgency. A volley of drone strikes has hit the northwest this month, all in North Waziristan, a bastion of Al-Qaeda fighters, the Taliban and the Haqqani network, known for staging attacks on US and Nato troops in Afghanistan. The latest drone strike on Friday night on a suspected Taliban compound in the region killed five militants, officials said. More than 750 people have been killed in over 80 drone strikes in Pakistan since August 2008. Washington says the tribal regions, where security forces are battling Islamist militants, have become a safe haven for extremists. |
| Posted by:Fred |