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Missile attack in Pakistan kills 13, including two foreigners

ISLAMABAD, Sept 12 (KUNA) -- At least 13 people, including two foreigners, were killed Friday in a US missile airstrike on a border tribal region, only two days after the military chief criticized such attacks on Pakistan and warned that the country's borders would be defended at all costs.
An unmanned US drone fired two missiles at a house in Taulkhel village of North Waziristan tribal agency, bordering Afghanistan, early Friday, security sources told KUNA.
They said the attack killed at least 13 people, including two foreign nationals of Arab descent, adding that the house was completely destroyed.
The latest US airstrike came two days after military chief Pervez Kiani criticized US attacks inside Pakistani territory and said that the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country would be defended at all cost and no external force was allowed to conduct operations inside Pakistan.
Military spokesman, Ather Abbass, talking to BBC on Thursday said that the military troops would launch retaliatory operation if the US troops attacked again.
NATO forces, fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan, denied being part of the cross-border US raids.
Nearly 31,000 US troops are in Afghanistan, divided between the NATO command and a separate force under the US Central Command.
A New York Times report Wednesday said that President George W. Bush had given secret orders in July authorizing US armed forces to carry out ground assaults in Pakistan without seeking approval from Pakistan's government.
Pakistan's Ambassador in Washington Husain Haqqani held extensive meetings at the White House, with National Security and Capitol Hill trying to assure US lawmakers that his country remained a key partner in this war and that such attacks had strained Pakistani-US relations. (end) amn.ema KUNA 120958 Sep 08NNNN