A presumed US drone attack has killed at least eight people at a Taliban base in Pakistan's tribal belt, the first such strike since the apparent death of the Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud six days ago.
Early reports suggested that a CIA-operated pilotless plane targeted a militant training facility this morning in the Kaniguram area of South Waziristan, Mehsud's mountain stronghold.
The strike came hours after militants fired a dozen rockets into an upmarket neighbourhood of Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier province, killing two people and wounding 10. Panicked residents fled their homes as missiles struck the Hayatabad district at about 1am, local police said.
Later, an ambush by militants sparked a gunfight at a paramilitary Frontier Corps base on the city's outskirts. The military said three militants had been killed, but gave no casualty figures for its own side.
Rocket attacks on major urban centres are rare in Pakistan, and last night's was seen as a violent response to government claims that Mehsud was killed in last Wednesday's drone attack.
Senior Taliban commanders insist the notorious Taliban leader is alive and well, and have promised to produce video evidence today. The government say he is almost certainly dead, and that militants are trying to mask a violent power struggle for control of his Tehrik I Taliban Pakistan (TTP) group.
"The current position is that their men are scattered, and they are fighting with each other," Rehman Malik, the interior minister of Pakistan, told reporters.
Some militant commanders issued statements yesterday describing Mehsud as "seriously ill", suggesting they were preparing the ground for an admission of his death.
The individual or group targeted by the latest drone strike was not clear. South Waziristan is home to thousands of Mehsud fighters as well as a large contingent of al-Qaida fugitives, mostly from Uzbekistan.
Ten of the last 11 US drone attacks have targeted the Mehsud network, suggesting increased co-operation with Pakistani intelligence. It is extremely difficult to get reliable information about the aftermath of such strikes, however, due to the area's remote terrain and the absence of government control.
More violence has erupted elsewhere in the tribal belt, compounding the sense of chaos following Mehsud's apparent demise. Television stations reported that clashes between rival clans in Orakzai tribal agency had killed at least eight people.
