Death toll from U.S. missile strike increases to 21

PARACHINAR, Pakistan — Nine more bodies were pulled from the rubble of houses hit by a suspected U.S. missile strike targeting a Taliban commander in northwestern Pakistan, bringing the total number of dead to 21 on Saturday.

The airstrike in North Waziristan on Friday near the Afghan border was aimed at Siraj Haqqani, a Taliban commander with suspected close ties to al-Qaida who is blamed for masterminding ambushes on American troops in Afghanistan. It was unclear whether he was among the dead, intelligence officials said.

Local tribal elder Safdar Khan said those killed included six children.

Three intelligence officials confirmed the death toll, although they did not say whether any children were among the casualties. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release information.

Haqqani is known to have visited the house that was targeted, the officials said. Khan did not specify whether Haqqani was there at the time.

The attack was the latest by unmanned aircraft in northwestern Pakistan, and suggests a return to the original aim of the covert program to kill al-Qaida and Taliban leaders who use the lawless region as a base to plot attacks. A drone apparently killed Pakistan's most-wanted militant, Baitullah Mehsud, on Aug. 5.

Friday's strike was the third in three weeks in Pakistan, which officially protests the drone assaults as a violation of its sovereignty. The United States is believed to have launched more than 40 such attacks in the northwest since last year.

The missile hit a housing compound in the village of Dande Darpa Khel, four intelligence officers said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. None of the dead were identified, but the officers said local informants told them all those in the compound were Afghans.

Dande Darpa Khel is the Pakistani stronghold of Haqqani, who operates on both sides of the border and has a powerful network in eastern Afghanistan. He has a large Islamic school in the village that was hit by a suspected U.S. missile in October 2008, killing about 20 people.

Siraj is the son of senior Taliban leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, who was supported by U.S. and Pakistani aid when he fought in the 1980s against Soviet troops occupying Afghanistan. Now, American commanders count him as a dangerous foe.