Drone levels home of militant, kills 17

Pakistan strike year’s deadliest

ISLAMABAD — A U.S. drone leveled the home of an Afghan militant commander late Tuesday in the northwest Pakistani tribal region of North Waziristan, killing 17 people in the year’s deadliest strike.

The drone fired four missiles at the residential compound of Haji Sharifullah, a senior operative of the Haqqani network based in the Sirai Darpakhel neighborhood of Miranshah, the administrative headquarters of North Waziristan, residents and security officials based there said. Sharif-ullah was not a casualty.

The Haqqani network is a particularly virulent Afghan militant faction allied with the Taliban.

Tuesday night’s drone attack was the third against targets in North Waziristan since a May general election won by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Ministry reacted mildly Wednesday to the latest strike, reiterating Sharif’s stance that drone attacks were not conducive to Islamabad’s efforts to persuade the Afghan Taliban and its allies to participate in peace talks.

The previous two drone strikes eliminated insurgents of the self-described Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), including its deputy chief, Waliur Rehman, and effectively scuttled Sharif’s plans to hold ex- ploratory peace talks. He reacted last month by announcing he had ordered an end to Pakistan’s policy of publicly condemning drone strikes as violations of its sovereignty that cause civilian deaths while its military has been complicit with the CIA.

U.S. intelligence reports reviewed by McClatchy in April provided the first official confirmation that the CIA and the Pakistani military’s Inter Services Intelligence directorate, or ISI, have run joint operations involving drones.

The latest strike came hours after a meeting in Islamabad between Pakistan’s army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and the commander of international security forces in Afghanistan, Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford.

Pakistan’s military said the meeting was routine, focusing primarily on coordination on the border with Afghanistan.