By Alamgir Bitani
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Missiles believed fired by a U.S. drone struck the home of the Pakistani Taliban chief's father-in-law on Wednesday, killing at least one woman and two militants, a security official and a relative said.
The United States has placed a $5 million (2.95 million pound) reward on the head of Baitullah Mehsud, an ally of al Qaeda widely regarded in Pakistan as Public Enemy No. 1.
U.S. missile attacks on Mehsud territory in the South Waziristan tribal region have become more frequent in the past month and Pakistan has also bombarded the militant stronghold with air raids and medium-range artillery.
The missiles struck the sprawling, high-walled compound belonging to his father-in-law in Makeen, a virtually inaccessible village in the heart of the Mehsud tribal lands, shortly before 1.00 a.m. (8 p.m. British time Tuesday).
Two missiles were fired, according to a senior government official in South Waziristan. Mehsud's whereabouts were not known at the time of the attack.
A security official in the region told Reuters that two militants were killed in the strike on the house of Ikramuddin Mehsud, a cleric whose daughter Baitullah Mehsud married in Makeen last November. A relative said children and at least one woman were also among the casualties.
"I received a call from my family that a drone had hit the house. One woman of the family was killed and four children wounded," the relative told Reuters. He did not want to be identified.
Ikramuddin's daughter is Mehsud's second wife. Mehsud has no children by his first wife. Under Islamic custom, a man can have four wives.
Mehsud declared himself leader of the Pakistan Taliban, grouping around 13 factions in the northwest, in late 2007, and his fighters have been behind a wave of suicide attacks inside Pakistan and on Western forces across the border in Afghanistan.
He is accused of being behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto in December 2007, a charge he has denied. Conspiracy theories abound over who killed the former prime minister.
U.S. drone attacks have mostly targeted lands held by Taliban leaders from the Wazir tribe, as their territory borders Afghanistan and they have been more involved in the Afghan insurgency.
But U.S. strikes against Mehsud increased after the Pakistan government ordered a military offensive in June.
The army has sealed roads around Mehsud's mountain redoubt and villagers have fled the area, but as the days have dragged on, doubts have grown about whether the army intends to launch a full-blown assault.
South Waziristan's serrated mountain ridges, dried out river beds and gullies and low chaparral provide perfect terrain for guerrilla warfare, and Mehsud has a force of battle-hardened fighters variously estimated at between 10,000 and more than 20,000.
Analysts believe the army won't risk opening another front until it has finished a campaign against the Taliban in the Swat valley, far to the east and closer to the capital, Islamabad.
(Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider; Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by Nick Macfie)
