08-07-09 US drones bombard South Waziristan

At least 24 people have been killed in a second air attack on Pakistan's South Waziristan district in one day.The air raid,carried out by an unmanned US drone,came hours after a similar assault on a compound killed 10 people.Pakistani security officials said the dead were Taliban fighters operating in the country's northwestern tribal belt.Kamal Hyder,Al Jazeera's correspondent in Pakistan,said:"In South Waziristan,the stronghold of Baitullah Mehsud,two drone missile strikes have taken place - one in the morning and the other in the late afternoon." It is not known whether Mehsud,a wanted leader of the Pakistan Taliban,is among the dead and injured but he is known to operate in the area.South Waziristan has become the focus of the Pakistani military's offensive against Taliban sympathisers after it launched an assault on the Swat Valley and Buner in April.One unnamed security source said Wednesday's second missile strike hit a convoy of vehicles near Janata,a village 50km northwest of the main district town of Wana."At least 25 militants have been killed in the US missile strike," he said.The toll is expected to rise.Wednesday's first air strike using a US drone,which unleashed six missiles on a convoy,struck 35km northeast of Wana.At least five people were wounded in that raid and officials said its target had been a training camp run by Meshud