Targeting a top al-Qaeda commander,a US drone fired missiles at a hideout in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region killing eight militants,most of them foreigners,even as a bomb packed with steel pellets left at least three policemen dead in Peshawar. The drone fired missiles in a village near Mir Ali,a key town in North Waziristan tribal agency killing eight militants,many of whom had escaped a major army offensive in the neighbouring South Waziristan,media reports said. Pakistani army officials were quoted as saying that the drone was targeting top al-Qaeda militant Salah al-Somali and it was not known if he was among those killed. The dead militants included foreigners also. It was the second such strike in the region within three days. On Wednesday,four militants were killed and five injured in a drone attack near Miranshah in North Waziristan. According to US officials,most of the top Tehrik-e- Taliban and Uzbek militants have escaped from South Waziristan to the North,considered to be a stronghold of the Haqqani faction of the Taliban that is active in Afghanistan. The drone attack came as violence continued to grip the restive North West Frontier Province,where a bomb packed with steel pellets ripped through a police vehicle on the outskirts of Peshawar,killing three policemen and injuring seven others,a day after a suicide attack outside a court complex claimed 19 lives. Officials said a police van on routine patrol in the area under the jurisdiction of Yaqatoot police station was attacked with a remote-controlled bomb in the wee hours today. Two policemen died instantly while another succumbed to his injuries in hospital this morning. No group claimed responsibility for the blast,the eighth attack to rock Peshawar within two weeks. Peshawar has been hit hardest during a wave of suicide attacks and bombings across Pakistan. Nearly 120 people were killed in a car bomb attack on a busy market in Peshawar late last month. Amid continuing attacks in the country,CIA chief Leon Panetta met Pakistan's top civil and military leaders in Islamabad to discuss the war against terror and sharing of information between the US and Pakistan to boost the campaign against militants operating along the Afghanistan border. Panetta,whose visit was kept low key apparently due to security concerns,met Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha. In another development,Pakistani police said they had arrested a militant suspected to be linked to several suicide attacks,including on the office of the UN food agency in the federal capital in which five persons were killed. Ahmed alias Tahir was arrested in Islamabad and eight kilograms of explosives were seized from him,Inspector General of Police Kaleem Imam told a news conference. Imam said Ahmed had links to the radical Lal Masjid and had also fought against troops in the troubled Swat valley.
