Rockets miss Pakistani politician's home

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan (AP) -- Rockets landed near a family home of a top politician in Pakistan's northwest, while elsewhere in the volatile region Taliban anger over a suspected U.S. missile strike indicated a top militant may have been killed, officials said.

Two rockets damaged three homes Sunday in the town of Mardan but missed that of provincial chief minister Amir Haider Khan Hoti's family. No one was hurt, officials said.

Several politicians in the North West Frontier Province have been targeted by insurgents. Hoti was in the nearby provincial capital, Peshawar, at the time of the attack, according to the province's information minister.

"The situation is very complex," said the minister, Mian Iftikhar Hussain. "We expect more such incidents. They are not going to be stopped here. We are facing a war-like situation."

The U.S. has ramped up cross-border strikes that target alleged al Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in northwest Pakistan, specifically tribal regions bordering Afghanistan. Pakistani leaders have often condemned such attacks as violations of their country's sovereignty.

In the case of an alleged American strike Friday in North Waziristan tribal region, government officials have been notably quiet. The Taliban, however, were reportedly furious.

The insurgents were moving aggressively in the militant-plagued area while using harsh language against local residents, including calling them "salable commodities" -- a reference to people serving as spies, two Pakistani intelligence officials said Sunday.

The intelligence officials, whose information came from informants and field agents, said the anger was a sign that a senior militant may have died. But that has not been confirmed, said the officials, who sought anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to media.

The intelligence officials put the overall death toll at 24. Pakistan's chief army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said Sunday at least 20 people died, eight of them foreign militants.

Two area residents said Taliban fighters warned people not to discuss the missile strike or inspect the rubble at the site. The residents requested anonymity for fear of Taliban revenge.

Taliban and top Pakistani government spokesmen either could not be reached, did not return calls or declined to comment on the strike Sunday.

The U.S. rarely acknowledges such attacks. 1st Lt. Nathan Perry, a U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan, said Sunday he had "no information to give." He did not deny U.S. involvement.

Extremists based in Pakistan's border regions have been blamed for attacks on American and NATO forces in Afghanistan and for violence inside Pakistan.

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