US-led forces alleged involved in Pakistan attack

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan: At least 15 people, including women and children, were killed in an attack involving US-led forces in a remote Pakistani village near the border with Afghanistan, officials and a resident said on Wednesday. The US-led coalition in Afghanistan said it had no report of such an incursion into Pakistan, said to have occurred in the militant-infested South Waziristan tribal region. Pakistan's army confirmed an attack but did not specify if it believed foreign troops were involved. The US and Pakistan, allies in the war on terror, have had tensions over cross-border attacks, including suspected American missile strikes in Pakistani territory. In one high-profile incident earlier this year, Pakistan said 11 of its soldiers died when US aircraft bombed their border post. Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Murad Khan said that the military believed that 15 people, including women and children, died in the pre-dawn attack near Angoor Ada, a town in the South Waziristan tribal agency. Khan provided no details and said the army was still investigating. Habib Khan Wazir, an area resident, said the incident occurred in a village called Musa Nikow. Wazir said he heard the sound of helicopters, and then an exchange of fire between the assailants and other residents. "Later, I saw 15 bodies inside and outside two homes. They had been shot in the head," Wazir said. He said the dead included women and children and that all were civilians. He claimed that the attackers were American and Afghan troops, and didn't know if any of them had been wounded. "There was darkness at the time when the Americans came and killed our innocent people," he said. "We would have not allowed them to go back alive if they had come to our village in daylight." Two local intelligence officials said informers had given similar accounts. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. The US embassy in Islamabad declined to comment. American officials say Pakistan's tribal regions along the Afghan border have turned into havens for al-Qaida and Taliban-linked militants involved in attacks on US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. South Waziristan is the base for Pakistan's top Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud. The US has pushed Pakistan to crack down on the militancy inside its territory, and there have been debates in Washington over how far the US can go in carrying out its own strikes. The news agency has reported last year that US rules of engagement allowed ground forces to go a little over six miles (10 kilometers) into Pakistan when in hot pursuit, and when forces were targeted or fired on by the enemy. US rules allow aircraft to go 10 miles into Pakistan air space. Wazir said the funerals of the slain people would be held in the village later on Wednesday.