DRONE WAR

U.S. Missiles Kill 9 in Pakistan

Drones targeted militant commander’s compound.

The Obama administration continued its drone program in the Middle East on Monday, killing nine suspected insurgents in an attack on a powerful militant commander’s compound in northwest Pakistan. It’s not clear whether the commander, Sadiq Noor, was at the compound when the missiles struck, but intelligence officials told the Associated Press they believed those killed had ties to Noor and another prominent militant leader in Pakistan, Hafiz Gul Bahadur. Escalating strikes in recent months have caused tension between the U.S. and Pakistan, where the government has blamed them for unnecessary civilian deaths, an allegation that the U.S. has disputed.