'Pakistan to discuss drone attacks with US'
ISLAMABAD (AFP) — Pakistan will take up the issue of missile attacks on militants in its northwest tribal belt during a visit by US special envoy Richard Holbrooke next week, the foreign ministry said Thursday.
Pakistan says the strikes, the most recent of which killed up to 12 militants in the Orakzai tribal district on Wednesday, violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among its 160 million people.
"Mr Holbrooke is scheduled to visit Pakistan next week. And this issue would come up for our discussions," foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told a weekly press briefing.
It will be Holbrooke's first visit since US President Barack Obama put Pakistan at the centre of the fight against Al-Qaeda, unveiling a new strategy to commit thousands more troops and billions of dollars to the Afghan war.
A spokesman for the US embassy in Islamabad was not immediately reachable to comment on Holbrooke's schedule.
Asked if Pakistan had lodged a protest with the United States against Wednesday's missile attack from a pilotless aircraft, Basit said: "This is part of our ongoing discussions with the US."
In response to another question on whether Pakistan had made a diplomatic protest to the United States, Basit replied: "Not yet, not in my knowledge."
"They are violations of our sovereignty and secondly they are counterproductive. They are not helpful in our efforts to win hearts and minds. So we cannot accept drone attacks," he said.
He added that Pakistan would work closely with the United States to work out the issue of drone attacks as well as other matters, saying: "We are looking forward to our engagement with the United States in order to formulate fresh approaches."
More than 35 missile strikes have killed over 350 people since August 2008, fanning hostility against the United States and the government in Pakistan, where nearly 1,700 people have been killed in extremist bombings in two years.
Holbrooke, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, has said that Pakistan's border regions pose the toughest challenge in the new US plan to root out extremism, warning the area cast a shadow over efforts in Afghanistan.
"We have to deal with the western Pakistan problem," Holbrooke told reporters on Friday after Obama unveiled his new plan to root out extremism.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
Map of Waziristan, PakistanA suspected United States drone missile attack in northwestern Pakistan has left 13 people dead, local security officials say.

The strike hit a town in the tribal area of North Waziristan, near the Afghan border, an apparent stronghold of Al-Qaeda militants.

"Thirteen people were killed. Ten of them are militants and the identity of the other three — whether they are militants or civilians — is not yet confirmed," a local official told AFP, asking to remain anonymous. 

"The missile hit a house where some guests were staying. We have information that 13 people were killed including some guests," an intelligence official stated.

The apparent target was the home of Tariq Khan, a local Wazir tribesman, who has been described as a 'facilitator of the Taliban'.

Pakistan has repeatedly condemned the U.S. drone attacks. Just two days prior to this latest attack, foreign ministry spokesman Abdul Basit told a press briefing that "they are violations of our sovereignty and secondly they are counterproductive. They are not helpful in our efforts to win hearts and minds. So we cannot accept drone attacks," he said.

US special envoy Richard Holbrooke is scheduled to visit Pakistan next week and this issue will be discussed, according to Basit.

More than 35 suspected drone attacks have killed over 340 people since August last year.