Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) unmaned drones have killed untoll numbers of civilians in Pakistan. The United States imperialists have stepped-up their agressive assaults on the people of central and south Asia in the quest to conquer Afghanistan.
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Officials say five Germans among eight fighters killed in drone strike in North Waziristan
04 Oct 2010 20:16 GMT
The US has increased drone strikes on al Qaeda-linked fighters in Pakistan's northwest
A suspected US drone strike has killed eight fighters in northwest Pakistan, with Pakistani intelligence officials saying that at least five of the the men were Germans.
They also said that the eight men, killed in the raid on a mosque in Mir Ali in North Waziristan on Monday, were members of a group called Jihad Islami.
But independently confirmed details of the incident were unavailable, and both the US and German governments have yet to comment on the strike.
Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from the Pakistan capital, Islamabad, said at least three women were also killed in the raid. There are reports of some children being killed too, he said.
"What is raising the alarm bells here is that despite the fact that there may be some evidence to suggest that these people are indeed militants, Germans in this case ... there is, of course, this apprehension that most of the time these strikes are taking place not caring about the civilian casualties."
Foreign Islamists
Matthias Gebauer, the chief correspondent for German news magazine Der Spiegel, told Al Jazeera that while finding verified information on the attack had been difficult, news that German citizens may be among those killed in the strike "did not come as a big surprise".
"Because we know that about a couple of dozen German Islamists went from Germany to the Pakistani tribal belt, especially to Mir Ali," Gebauer said.
There are reports that al-Qaeda's leadership, increasingly restrained by missile strikes from US drones in northwest Pakistan, prizes such "home-grown" recruits as they have Western passports, and some militants are foreigners who have taken up the cause of holy war against the West.
Pakistan's northwest region is seen by the US as a training ground for fighters. It has been hit with 21 drone attacks in September alone, the highest number in a single month.
Besides al-Qaeda fighters, the CIA has been trying to eliminate leaders of the Haqqani network, an Afghan Taliban faction operating out of North Waziristan.
Terror threat
Monday's attack came a day after the US and the UK warned of an increased risk of terrorist attacks in Europe.
The alerts about possible attacks in Europe highlight concern that growing numbers of fighters are going from the West to remote war zones for training in answer to al-Qaeda's online call for 'jihad'.
The immediate trigger for Sunday's travel alerts was intelligence about a plot against European targets reportedly originating with a group of individuals in mountainous northern Pakistan, some of them believed to be European citizens.
Few details of the conspiracy are known. But the plot appears to be of the kind that Western officials believe poses the most significant danger - the use of so-called self-radicalised individuals with no previous record of extremism.
Source: Al Jazeera and Agencies
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