By Candace Rondeaux
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, November 20, 2008

KABUL, Nov. 19 -- A suspected U.S. airstrike deep inside Pakistani territory Wednesday killed six insurgent fighters and wounded several others, according to a Pakistani security official.

The airstrike in the district of Bannu in the North-West Frontier Province appears to be the first such attack outside Pakistan's tribal areas. It came as the country's top military officer met with NATO officials in Brussels to discuss the cross-border missile strikes, which have been increasingly frequent in recent months and which the United States considers necessary for combating al-Qaeda and the Taliban. The attacks have stoked tensions in Pakistan and drawn public rebukes from the government.

An unmanned U.S. Predator aircraft fired at least two missiles early Wednesday at a house near North Waziristan, one of seven semiautonomous tribal territories that line Pakistan's border with Afghanistan. A Pakistani security official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak publicly said the six who were killed were thought to be foreigners suspected of links to al-Qaeda.

Details about those killed could not be confirmed. A Pakistani military spokesman declined to comment. The United States generally does not acknowledge such attacks and has not issued any public comments on the use of Predator airstrikes on Pakistani soil.

Wednesday's attack coincided with a meeting between Pakistan's army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Kiyani, and NATO officials. Kiyani, who has publicly urged a halt to U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan, conferred with members of a NATO committee that included the organization's top military commander, Adm. Giampaolo Di Paola of the Italian navy.

Frustrated by stalled progress in the seven-year-old war in Afghanistan and by an increase in attacks emanating from Pakistan, the United States has carried out an estimated 26 strikes on targets in Pakistan this year. At least 20 of the attacks have occurred since August.

U.S. military officials privately tout the drone strikes, saying they have damaged insurgent safe havens in Pakistan's rugged tribal areas, and have killed a number of al-Qaeda and Taliban commanders.

Shortly after Wednesday's strike, Quazi Hussain Ahmad, head of the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, vowed to block a vital NATO supply route if the U.S. attacks continue, the Associated Press reported. NATO supply routes from Pakistan into Afghanistan have become targets for Taliban fighters in recent months. Last week, a Taliban raid on a NATO convoy near the Khyber Pass shut down military supply traffic for several days. The route was reopened Monday after Pakistani authorities assigned more security to the convoys.

Special correspondent Haq Nawaz Khan in Pakistan contributed to this report.