US MISSILES narrowly missed hitting the leader of the Pakistani Taleban after he attended a funeral procession, intelligence officials said yesterday.
Baitullah Mehsud, accused of plotting suicide bombings and the assassination on Tuesday of his chief rival, is the target of a Pakistani offensive in the area bordering Afghanistan.
Suspected missile strikes fired from drones killed several peop
le at a purported Taleban training centre early on Tuesday. A barrage then rained down on a funeral procession for some of those killed in the first attack.
Two intelligence officials said yesterday that although Mehsud had visited the village where the funeral took place, he left before the missiles killed 80 people and wounded dozens more.
Local media reports suggested Mehsud had a close call. But Qari Hussain, an associate of Mehsud, denied those reports.
"Baitullah Mehsud was at a secret place at the time of the American missile attack, and the attack killed only five of our colleagues; the remaining 45 slain men were villagers," he said.
Meanwhile, Islamabad police chief Kalim Imam said yesterday police were holding 25 suspects on suspicion of planning terrorist acts or of being behind bomb attacks across the country.
"We got hold of them through good intelligence," he said.
Interior minister Rehman Malik said two of them were arrested on suspicion they wanted to attack parliament and an elite intelligence agency.
The full article contains 231 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
