Militants execute three 'US collaborators'

Executions come amid a surge of US drone attacks killing nine militants.

MIRAMSHAH: Militants publicly executed three tribesmen in the North Waziristan tribal region on Sunday after accusing them of spying for the United States, officials said.

The men, blindfolded with hands tied behind their backs, were lined up near a gas station in the lawless tribal area near the Afghan border, local official Nasir Khan said.

“A man wearing a black mask shot them dead one by one," he said – adding that the militants, before killing the trio, asked local people to “come and witness the fate of US spies”.

He said that about 100 people watched the executions at an open area on a road near Miramshah, the main town in North Waziristan and a bastion of Taliban and al Qaeda linked militants.

The alleged spies were local tribesmen aged 25, 28 and 32, Khan said. The militants left in two cars after the killings.

A local intelligence official also confirmed the executions, which came amid a surge in US drone attacks in the Pakistani tribal belt.

Militants frequently kidnap and kill tribesmen in the troubled region, accusing them of spying for the government or US forces in Afghanistan, where Taliban fighters have been waging a vicious insurgency for nine years.

Meanwhile, US drone strikes targeted militant vehicles near Miramshah, killing nine fighters, security officials said.

Two missiles were fired at a vehicle soon after it left a militant compound near Miranshah, a security official said.

“The attack blew up the vehicle and also damaged the compound. Five militants were killed, they had been inside the vehicle, which was destroyed in the attack," the official said from Miramshah.

Another official, in Peshawar, said the pilotless aircraft fired four missiles in two separate raids on the car in Dandey Saidgai village, confirming the deaths of five militants.

A drone then fired two missiles at a car in Moizer town, 40 kilometres west of Miramshah, officials said. “Four militants were killed as the attack blew up their car in a fireball,” an official said.

Two other security officials confirmed the attack and the casualties.

“The attacks killed five militants," the official in Peshawar said, adding that the drones fired two missiles each on the vehicle and the militant compound.

It was not immediately clear if the drones were chasing any high value target, officials said.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 8^th, 2010.