PESHAWAR, Pakistan: A US drone strike has killed eight militants, including German nationals, in Pakistan’s lawless tribal belt near the Afghan border, local security officials have said.
“Five German rebels of Turkish origin and three local militants were killed in the strike,” a security official said, adding they were trying to find out further details of the dead and their militant group.
Another security official told AFP that “some European nationals including Germans were killed in the strike”, without giving an exact number.
The attack took place in Mir Ali bazaar, 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal district in the northwest.
North Waziristan is a renowned hideout for Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.
Pakistani officials have reported that at least 21 US drone strikes in September killed around 120 people, the highest monthly toll for the attacks.
Recent missile strikes have largely targeted militants linked with the Haqqani network, which is based in North Waziristan.
Officials in Washington say the strikes have killed a number of high-value targets including Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. However, the attacks fuel anti-American sentiment in the conservative Muslim country.
Militants fighting against over 150,000 US and NATO troops in Afghanistan are believed to be holed up in Pakistan’s northwestern Federally Administered Tribal Areas, as are operatives at war with Pakistani security forces.
Washington has branded the rugged tribal area, which lies outside Pakistani government control, a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous place on Earth.
The US military does not as a rule confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy the pilotless drones in the region.
Under US pressure to crack down on Islamist havens along the Afghan border, Pakistan has in the past year stepped up military operations against largely homegrown militants in the area.
Last year Pakistan launched its most ambitious military offensive yet against Taliban militants in South Waziristan, expanding the campaign to many of the other seven semi-autonomous tribal districts along the border.
Pakistani commanders have not ruled out an offensive in North Waziristan, but argue that gains in South Waziristan and the northwestern district of Swat need to be consolidated to prevent their troops from being stretched too thin.
Pakistan has protested against the drone strikes but has never taken any practical steps to stop the US carrying out such attacks. However, Pakistan’s move to block a main land route for NATO supplies last week has shown its determination to protect its airspace from US aircraft.
Pakistan halted the NATO convoys on Thursday after officials blamed a cross-border NATO helicopter attack for the deaths of three Pakistani soldiers.
The drone attack in which the German natioals were killed came hours after Japan and Sweden joined Washington and London in issuing an alert warning of a “possible terrorist attack” by Al-Qaeda and affiliated groups against their citizens travelling in Europe.
US channel Fox News, citing unnamed intelligence officials, said militants had a list of targets in France and Germany, including Paris’s Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame Cathedral, Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, the city’s central railway station and the Alexanderplatz TV tower.
Fox cited a senior western intelligence official as saying that the information about the target list was provided by “a German-Pakistani national interrogated at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.”
The reports said well-armed teams of jihadists planned to seize and murder Western hostages in a manner similar to the attacks two years ago in the Indian city of Mumbai on two hotels and its main railway station, in which 10 gunmen killed 166 people and injured more than 300.
The Eiffel Tower, one of France’s most-visited tourist attraction, was twice evacuated last month because of telephoned bomb warnings.
A small number of soldiers have been patrolling as usual at the foot of the Paris landmark as long lines of visitors waited to climb the tower, a magnet for many of the 74.2 million visitors to France last year.
Germany’s interior minister warned against “alarmism” about the threat, saying there were “no indications of imminent attacks in Germany.”
Thomas de Maiziere told reporters in Berlin there was a “high abstract threat” and that all leads were being investigated with “high intensity”.
The United States meanwhile has announced it is preparing to beef up law enforcement presence on trains and transit systems, ABC News has reported.
Coinciding with counterparts in Europe, US train network Amtrak will hold a “Rail Action Day” on Friday where uniformed officers will have highly visible presence on train routes.
