US strike kills four in South Waziristan: Officials

A US drone fired a missile at a house belonging to the cleric father-in-law of Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, killing at least four people, officials said. Suspected US attacks and Pakistani air strikes have increasingly targeted strongholds of Mehsud, described by the US State Department as a key Al-Qaeda facilitator in Pakistan's mountainous tribal region. Two Pakistani officials said the targeted building belonged to Maulana Ikram-ud-Din, one of Mehsud's two fathers-in-law, in the area of Laddah village in South Waziristan, part of Pakistan's tribal badlands on the Afghan border. The missile strike took place at around 12:45 am (1845 GMT Tuesday), the security official told. The missile was fired by a US drone, the official said. A second Pakistani security official also confirmed it was the house of Ikram-ud-Din, a cleric supportive of the Taliban but not a commander. It wasn't clear whether he (Ikram-ud-Din) was in the house at the time of the attack, he said, putting the death toll at two militants. Local officials said four people, including women and children, were injured in the overnight strike. A third Pakistani official was checking reports that the building belonged to Mehsud's father-in-law but confirmed two militants were killed.