PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistani officials pressured tribal elders Friday to help rescue 23 policemen believed to have been kidnapped by the Taliban during attacks on their posts in the country’s troubled northwest tribal region.
Also Friday, missiles fired from unmanned U.S. aircraft killed four suspected militants at a training center elsewhere in the remote frontier area, the main sanctuary for al-Qaida and Taliban fighters in the country, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
The 23 tribal policemen went missing before dawn Thursday when militants armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons attacked two posts in the Darra Adam Khel tribal region. Two policemen were also killed in the attacks.
Senior political officials held a meeting in the main northwest city of Peshawar on Friday with tribal elders from both the villages where the attacks took place, said government administrator Naveed Akbar Khan. Tribal law stipulates that the elders could be punished for attacks that occurred in their areas.