First Missile Hit under Obama in Pakistan

23/01/2009 | Al Manar | US slams 5 missiles into two houses- 15 Killed.

Missiles fired from suspected US drones slammed into militant dens in Pakistan's northwest tribal belt on Friday killing at least 15 people, including three children, officials said.

The strikes, which saw up to five missiles slam into two houses, were the first since US President Barack Obama took office and came one day after he appointed a veteran diplomat special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Dozens of similar strikes on northwest Pakistan since August have sparked angry government criticism of the United States, a close ally which is believed to be launching the missiles from unmanned CIA aircraft.

Eight people died when missiles fired from an unmanned surveillance plane slammed into a fortress-like militant compound near a Mir Ali, a notorious Al-Qaeda hub in Pakistan's North Waziristan, security officials said.

Hours later a suspected US surveillance plane fired another two missiles into a house in Wana, another notorious Taliban and Al-Qaeda, killing seven people in South Waziristan district, local officials said.

Although officials initially claimed most of the seven dead were foreigners -- a term that usually means Al-Qaeda -- a senior security official later admitted that three children and relatives of the tribesman who owned the house died.

[Deadly missiles strike Pakistan - BBC]

[The death toll risen to 21 - Presstv ]