US missile strike kills 25 in Pakistan: official

A United States missile strike killed at least 25 people in Pakistan's South Waziristan region on the Afghan border on Saturday, as U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke was due to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai to assess efforts to tackle a Taliban insurgency.

The strike by pilotless drones was the third such attack since U.S. President Barack Obama took office last month and could ignite fresh popular anger in Pakistan over the cross-border raids from Afghanistan.

"Our people have informed us that at least 25 people were killed. It could be more," a Taliban official said.

Missiles hit a sprawling house in the Zangari area in the South Waziristan region. "Around 50 to 60 mujahideen have been living there for about a week. All of them were Uzbeks," the Taliban official added.

Frustrated over what it sees as Pakistan's failure to stem the flow of al Qaeda and Taliban militants from its lawless tribal regions into Afghanistan, the United States stepped up cross-border attacks last year.

U.S. drones carried out about 30 missile attacks on suspected militants in 2008, according to a Reuters tally, more than half after the beginning of September. More than 220 people have been killed and residents of the area often accuse the U.S. of killing innocent civilians.

US envoy in Afghanistan

Meanwhile the meeting between Holbrooke and Karzai was due in the evening and comes as Afghanistan marks 20 years since the withdrawal of Soviet forces after a 10-year resistance that the Taliban claims has parallels with its own battle against U.S. and other troops.

Karzai's office would not comment on the agenda, but the president is likely to reiterate demands for an end to civilian casualties in U.S.-led military operations and more focus on militant bases in neighboring Pakistan.

Afghanistan has been heartened by recent strikes on extremist sanctuaries in the Pakistani tribal belt, which it says give vital support to the insurgency.

Holbrooke, Obama's regional troubleshooter, arrived in Afghanistan late Thursday from Pakistan where military commanders say they urgently need equipment to tackle the Taliban threat.

He has already met Afghan authorities and politicians including from the opposition, military commanders and international ambassadors as part of wide-ranging discussions that will inform a new U.S. policy here.

Difficult struggle

Holbrooke, who has a reputation as a hard-nosed diplomat, has insisted a new approach is required to turn the strife-torn country around that involves all of Afghanistan's neighbors and in particular Pakistan.

"It is going to be a long, difficult struggle," he said at an international conference in Germany last week, adding he believed it was going to be "much tougher than Iraq."

Holbrooke's appointment underscores Obama's commitment to refocus on Afghanistan, which in 2008 suffered its deadliest year in the insurgency led by the Taliban who were removed from government in a U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.

Obama is expected to decide soon whether to send more U.S. troops to Afghanistan with the U.S. commander here, General David McKiernan, requesting up to 30,000 additional troops.

If they are approved for deployment, it would nearly double the size of the U.S. force, which currently numbers around 37,000.