Qaeda, Taliban men escape missile strike

BY OUR PAKISTAN CORRESPONDENT

with agency inputs

ISLAMABAD

Oct. 10: A US missile strike in Miranshah just missed top Taliban and Al Qaeda leaders, officials said on Friday. "The missile targeted a high-level meeting of Al Qaeda and Taliban commanders in Miranshah but missed most of them by just minutes," a security official said. Two missiles hit the house of Taliban leader Hafiz Sahar Gul in the North Waziristan district on Thursday night, killing nine people, including six Arab militants.

He said some 30 foreign Al-Qaeda and pro-Taliban commanders were in the house of Hafiz Sahar Gul but most of them had left minuets before the strike.

"The six Arabs who were killed are all believed to be lower level operatives," the official added on condition of anonymity. Officials did not immediately give the identities of the targeted militants. But they said that they were not Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden or his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Residents said the other three people killed in the strike in the remote village of Tapi were women and children, but there was no official confirmation.