Suspected US missile kills 20 in Pakistan

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090214/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – A suspected U.S. missile strike by a drone aircraft flattened a militant hide-out in northwest Pakistan on Saturday, killing 20 local and foreign insurgents, intelligence officials said. At least 15 militants were also wounded in the attack in the restive South Waziristan tribal region, where Pakistan has launched several military operations against the Taliban, al-Qaida and their local supporters in recent years. The Taliban surrounded the targeted house and transported the dead and wounded out, said three intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. No government or military spokesmen were available for comment. Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its fight against terrorism, but it has opposed missile strikes in the country’s tribal regions where Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents are believed to be operating. The U.S. has launched more than 30 missile attacks in recent months. Saturday’s attack came days after Pakistani leaders told Richard Holbrooke, an American envoy dispatched by President Barack Obama to the region, that the U.S. attacks should be stopped as they were counterproductive and fueling anti-America sentiment in this Islamic nation. It also came a day after a militant group holding an American employee of the United Nations warned it would kill him within 72 hours and issued a grainy video of the blindfolded captive saying he was “sick and in trouble.”