Suspected US Missile strike in Pakistan kills 8

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan -- Suspected U.S. missile strikes killed at least eight people Monday in volatile northwest Pakistan, officials and witnesses said.

Bakht Janan, a local security official at a check post, said an unmanned drone aircraft began circling over the village of Kari Khel around 3 a.m., then fired missiles at two vehicles several hours later. Witnesses told The Associated Press that one of the vehicles had been blasting away with an anti-aircraft gun at the drone.

Four people were killed as missiles hit the vehicle and an adjacent, fortlike house, while four others died and one was injured in the second vehicle five miles (eight kilometers) away by dirt track.

Janan said an unexploded missile was found on the ground near the first vehicle.

Yar Mohammad, a villager, said local Taliban pulled out bodies from the rubble while cordoning off the scene about 10 miles (15 kilometers) south of Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal area near the Afghan border.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/21/AR2008122100364_pf.html