DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – About 100 suspected pro-Taliban militants attacked the house of a government official in northwestern Pakistan before dawn Thursday, killing 13 people, police said.
The house belonged to Ameerud Din, the top administrator of the Khyber Tribal region in North West Frontier Province, bordering Afghanistan.
Din was not home at the time, but his brother, who also is a government servant, was among those killed. Authorities said the dead included six members of the same family and seven guests.
"The attackers fired rockets, threw hand grenades and used guns" for about 30 minutes before fleeing, said Sanaullah Khan, an area police chief.
Two others were injured in the attack near the village of Guman, 12 miles from the troubled town of Tank.
Tank lies in a swath of territory near the Afghan border where Islamic militants have challenged the government's authority with increasing success over the past year. It is also not far from the South Waziristan tribal region where remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda are believed to be hiding, and where the military has carried out scores of operations against foreign and local militants.
Analysts say pro-Taliban groups are extending their influence from the semiautonomous tribal region next to the Afghan border. The area is considered a haven for Taliban guerrillas fighting foreign troops in Afghanistan as well as a possible hiding place for Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden.
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