Suspected US missiles kill 7 in Pakistan

Suspected U.S. missiles killed seven people in a Pakistani Taliban stronghold Sunday, officials said, while an attack on a military convoy and a cleric’s two-week deadline for the creation of Islamic courts rattled peace talks with militants elsewhere in the country’s northwest.

The missiles landed in Murghiban village in the South Waziristan tribal region and wounded three people, two Pakistani intelligence officials said. At least four of the dead were believed to be foreign militants, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

They said drones believed to be used by the United States were seen in the air ahead of the strike and that Taliban fighters surrounded the damaged stronghold afterward. The compound was allegedly a militant training facility, the officials said, citing field informants.

The U.S. has dramatically stepped up its missile attacks on al Qaida and Taliban targets in Pakistan’s northwest since mid-2008, a policy that has not changed under new President Barack Obama.