Continuing US air strikes in Pakistan's tribal agencies

The US military formally denied any knowledge of Fridays air strike, in line with Washingtons claim that it respects Pakistans national sovereignty. Pakistani intelligence sources, however, told Western journalists that two missiles fired by a remotely-controlled Predator aircraft had destroyed several houses in Muhammad Khel, a village located not far from the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. The sources alleged that at least 24 people were killed, including 16 Arab Islamic militants, five supporters of Afghanistans former Taliban regime and two women and a child.

The US air strikes have killed and maimed dozens of people in the FATA. On at least two occasions Pakistani border guards and tribesmen have opened fire on approaching American aircraft. A series of formal protests by Pakistani authorities, however, have been little more than a smokescreen to obscure their complicity in the American militarys campaign of assassinations and terror.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal last week, the newly-installed president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, all but admitted that the killings were taking place with his blessing and the agreement of the government headed by Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. We have an understanding [with the US], in the sense that were going after an enemy together, Zardari stated. Gilanis defence secretary, Kamran Rasool, told a parliamentary committee on October 7 that the government had consented to US air strikes.

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