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World - Asia/Pacific

Unexploded U.S. cruise missile found in Pakistan

August 24, 1998
Web posted at: 5:29 a.m. EDT (0929 GMT)

QUETTA, Pakistan (CNN) - A U.S. cruise missile fired at guerrilla camps in Afghanistan has been found unexploded in southwest Pakistan and a bomb disposal team has been sent to the site, the Pakistani government told CNN.

The Pakistanis say they informed the U.S. of the discovery on Friday.

The missile was found by local people in Shatinger Baluch Abad, in the Kharan district around 250 km (155 miles) southwest of Quetta.

"We found the unexploded cruise missile about 65 kilometers (40 miles) from Basima," Assistant Commissioner Abdul Samad Baluch said.

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  • "The Tomahawk cruise missile made a crater of around 12 feet (four meters) deep with clear marking of 'Made in USA'. It was more than seven feet (two meters) long," a district official told reporters.

    The unexploded missile had been cordoned off and the area evacuated, Baluch said, adding that the Interior Ministry had been told and teams of experts, including the bomb disposal squad, had been rushed to the site.

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    A local source said the nearest settlement to where the missile landed was 12 kilometers (seven miles) away. Provincial security officials confirmed that parts of a missile had been found but refused to elaborate.

    Local people said that the missile hit the ground around 10.30 p.m. (1730 GMT) on Thursday and that other missiles fired by U.S. warships in the Arabian Sea were seen flying over Basima, he said.

    Pakistan last Friday protested that a missile had struck the Pakistan side of the Afghan border but later retracted the claim, because the missile had hit Afghan territory, killing five or six people.

    Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who telephoned President Bill Clinton to lodge the protest, sacked his intelligence chief over the blunder.

    The United States fired the missiles at militant camps suspected of being linked to Osama Bin Laden, an Islamic militant leader accused of masterminding the double bombing of U.S. embassies in East Africa.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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