(Reuters) - A U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's South Waziristan region killed 10 militants and wounded seven on Friday, Pakistani intelligence agency officials said.

The missiles were fired in an area controlled by Pakistani Taliban leader and al Qaeda ally Baitullah Mehsud, where Pakistani troops are gearing up for an offensive.

Here are some facts about the U.S. missile attacks, the controversy they have caused, and a list of some of the more prominent militants killed, according to Pakistani officials.

WHY DOES THE UNITED STATES ATTACK?

Many al Qaeda members and Taliban fled to northwestern Pakistan's ungoverned ethnic Pashtun belt after U.S.-led soldiers ousted Afghanistan's Taliban government in 2001. From their sanctuaries there the militants have orchestrated insurgencies in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The United States and Afghanistan have pressed Pakistan to eliminate the sanctuaries. Apparently frustrated by Pakistan's inability to do so, the United States is hitting the militants itself.

HOW MANY ATTACKS?

The United States has carried out about 44 drone air strikes since the beginning of last year, most since September, killing about 410 people, including many foreign militants, according to a tally of reports from Pakistani intelligence agents, district government officials and residents.

SOME OF THE PEOPLE REPORTED KILLED

January 28, 2008 - A senior al Qaeda member, Abu Laith al-Libi, was killed in a strike in North Waziristan.

July 28 - An al Qaeda chemical and biological weapons expert, Abu Khabab al-Masri, was killed in South Waziristan.

November 22 - Rashid Rauf, a Briton with al Qaeda links and the suspected ringleader of a 2006 plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic, was killed in an attack in North Waziristan. An Egyptian named as Abu Zubair al-Masri was said to be among the dead in the same attack.

January 1, 2009 - A U.S. drone killed three foreign fighters in South Waziristan, Pakistani agents said. A week later, a U.S. counter-terrorism official said al Qaeda's operational chief Usama al-Kini and an aide had been killed in South Waziristan. The U.S. official declined to say how or when they died.

WHERE ARE THE DRONES LAUNCHED FROM?

A senior U.S. lawmaker, Senator Dianne Feinstein, told a U.S. Senate hearing in February that drones were being operated and flown from an air base inside Pakistan. Pakistan denied that, saying there was no permission for the strikes, nor had there ever been.

U.S. POSITION

The United States has shrugged off Pakistani protests. It says the missile strikes are carried out under an agreement with Islamabad which allows Pakistani leaders to decry the attacks in public.

U.S. officials said last month the United States had given Pakistan data on militants in the Afghan border area gathered by surveillance drones in Pakistani airspace under an agreement with Pakistan.

PAKISTAN'S POSITION

Pakistan says the drone strikes violate its sovereignty and undermine efforts to deal with militancy because they inflame public anger and bolster support for the militants. Pakistan has pressed the United States to provide it with drones to allow it to conduct its own anti-militant operations.

(Compiled by Islamabad Newsroom; Editing by Jason Subler and Sanjeev Miglani)

By Asif Shahzad

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A military official says 26 security personnel have been killed in a helicopter crash in northwestern Pakistan.

The official says the incident took place Friday and that a technical fault was to blame.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information to the media.

Earlier, Pakistan's army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said a helicopter had crashed in the northwest, but gave no details on casualties.

By Hafiz Wazir

WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - A U.S. drone aircraft fired missiles on Friday into Pakistan's South Waziristan region, killing 10 militants, officials said, ahead of an expected Pakistani military offensive in the area.

The United States, facing a growing Afghan insurgency, began stepping up drone attacks on militant strongholds in lawless enclaves on the Pakistani side of the border a year ago despite Pakistani complaints.

Three missiles were fired at militant hideouts in an area near the Afghan border controlled by Pakistani Taliban leader and al Qaeda ally Baitullah Mehsud, killing 10 militants and wounding seven, two intelligence agency officials said.

"The missiles hit an office of Mufti Noor Wali, who was once in charge of training militants for suicide attacks," one of the officials said.

It was not known if Wali was among the dead, or if any foreign militants had been killed, they said.

The attack came as Pakistani troops stepped up pressure on Mehsud's strongholds, carrying out air strikes by jet fighters in recent weeks to soften up targets before an expected full-scale offensive.

The drone attack also came a day after thousands of U.S. Marines launched an offensive against the Afghan Taliban in the southern Afghan province of Helmand, and as British troops seized important canal crossings in support of that effort.

Helmand shares a 200-km (130-mile) desert border with the southwestern Pakistani province of Baluchistan.

NEW FRONT?

Pakistan officially objects to the strikes by pilotless U.S. aircraft on its soil, saying they violate its sovereignty and undermine efforts to deal with militancy by inflaming public anger and bolstering support for the militants.

After an alarming expansion of militant influence and aggression in northwest Pakistan, the Pakistani army went on the offensive in the Swat region two months ago, a development U.S. officials have welcomed because of fears about Pakistan's stability and the safety of its nuclear arsenal.

The military says it is nearing the end of the offensive in Swat, a former tourist valley northwest of Islamabad, although soldiers are encountering pockets of fighters.

But no Taliban leaders have been among the approximately 1,600 militants the army has reported killed. Independent casualty estimates are not available.

The failure to kill or capture Taliban leaders in Swat has led to fears that they could make a comeback if and when the army withdraws.

Trouble is also brewing in another militant stronghold on the Afghan border, North Waziristan.

A militant faction allied with Mehsud ambushed an army convoy there on Sunday, killing 16 soldiers.

Analysts say the army is reluctant to open a new front in North Waziristan while it is finishes off in Swat and prepares for South Waziristan, but it would want to hit back in response to the killing of the 16 men.

Helicopter gunships have struck in the area this week and on Friday, jet fighters bombed militants to the west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, killing five of them, residents and security officials said.

The military said on Friday afternoon its forces had killed 11 militants and captured 24 over the previous 24 hours in the Swat valley.

However, a military helicopter crashed on Friday because of a technical failure in the northwestern Orakzai region, underlining the cost of fighting the militants.

Government officials in the region said the four men on board were killed.

By Dan McDonald / MetroWest Daily News

FRAMINGHAM —

Josh Stieber doesn't think he shot anyone.

Sometimes, during his year-plus tour of Iraq, the infantryman would unleash a barrage of fire during the confusing aftermath of a roadside explosion or sniper fire. But he does not remember hitting anybody. Usually the insurgent wreaking the havoc was long gone.

It was not that long ago that Stieber was sitting atop a Humvee, manning a machine gun turret near Baghdad, fruitlessly rattling off rounds into an empty countryside.

Now, Stieber is a long way from Iraq, his former Army base in Kansas and his Maryland home.

The 21-year-old spends the majority of his days literally one step at a time.

Stieber has been walking across America since the end of May, attending political rallies, visiting philanthropic organizations and trying to spread a message of peace.

Yesterday, he was walking through a light drizzle along Rte. 9 in Wellesley, his 6-foot-4 frame loaded down with a 45-pound pack, on his way to Framingham to crash on a local peace activist's couch for a couple days.

He plans to press westward. He hopes to walk to the Midwest Cincinnati or Louisville - then bike to Washington state by this fall.

After that? The soft-spoken veteran merely shrugs. He'll have plenty of time to figure that out during his crosscountry trek, he figures.

A team of documentarians show up at his various stops.

Lately, he's been making the rounds of left-wing war critics.

Last Monday he was in Cambridge to meet with Noam Chomsky, the war critic and Harvard linguist. That night he attended a lecture in Arlington featuring Cindy Sheehan, who gained national notoriety for camping outside President George W. Bush's Texas ranch in protest of the Iraq War.

He's been mostly couch-surfing his way up the East Coast since he left his home several weeks ago; he's only had to camp out three times.

On a good day, he can cover 20 miles on foot.

He has traveled to various philanthropic organizations, visiting a prison reintegration program in Maryland and a cancer research program in Philadelphia. He's splitting up his Iraq combat pay, which is just shy of $30,000, among the different causes and charities.

He wants his journey to inspire and promote peace. His blog is dubbed the Contagious Love Experiment.

While U.S. troops began withdrawing from Iraq cities and towns at the end of June, Stieber says his message transcends any particular Middle East development.

"It's a lot more than just that. I want people to be more aware and evaluate the mindset that drove them to support the war in the first place," he said.

Of the war in Afghanistan, he said, "Throwing more firepower at a problem isn't going to solve it."

He did not always run in such liberal circles, nor have a transient existence.

Growing up the oldest of three children to a family "that listened to Rush Limbaugh," in Gaithersburg, Md., a half-hour north of Washington D.C., Stieber attended an evangelical megachurch. His schooling fell under the auspices of his church.

He remembers Bible class justifying the war in Iraq as a battle of good vs. evil. He spent Friday nights during his teen years approaching strangers and asking them if they thought they were going to heaven or hell.

He loved politics. He worked as a volunteer for George W. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign and looked at military service as a good launching point for a possible career in the GOP.

At his high school, he got the impression the military was all about "saving lives and passing out soccer balls."

Upon graduation he joined the Army, and was stationed out of Fort Riley, Kan.

He did one 14-month tour of Iraq, from February 2007 to April 2008.

An infantryman, Stieber, grew increasingly uncomfortable with his role in the military as his stint in Iraq lengthened.

He had a hard time juxtaposing the religious morality of his childhood and adolescence with harsh reality of warfare. He started to see the political rhetoric and moral justification of the war as "talking without action behind it."

"The gap kept getting bigger and bigger," he said.

He read Gandhi and Tolstoy and started to change his mind about the American presence in the Middle East.

He recalls raiding homes in search of weapons caches and the Army's capture and subsequent turning of a local politician who had previously worked for the insurgency.

The defunct ice cream factory where he stayed for more than a year in Baghdad was blown up the day after his contingent left.

He left the military, filing a request for consideration as a conscientious objector. It was granted, a relative rarity the military has granted about 30 such discharges per year since the Iraq war began.

He was vetted by an investigative officer, chaplain, and psychiatrist per military procedure before he departed.

Sipping on black tea yesterday in a Natick coffee shop, he says he was disenchanted with the Army trying to "out-terrorize the terrorists."

"Forcing a country into liberation? That doesn't add up for me," he said.

Tomorrow morning, he will be at Annie's Book Shop in Nobscot speaking to whoever shows up. His next stop after that will be Northampton.

He's still into Jesus, but has ditched institutional religion.

He hopes to figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his life, but mainly wants to communicate a singular message.

"I'm trying to turn a negative into positive. Fear and paranoia aren't the only way to live," he said.

From NBC’s Courtney Kube

The Defense Department's General Counsel is now reviewing the Don't Ask Don't Tell policy, spokesperson Bryan Whitman confirmed today.

Speaking to a group of reporters on his plane yesterday evening, Secretary Robert Gates said that when he really examined the law, he found that "it doesn't leave much to the imagination for a lot of flexibility."

Gates asked his general counsel to examine whether there is any flexibility in how the military applies the law. The secretary mused about whether the military should "take action on somebody" if the information about their sexuality comes "from somebody who may have vengeance in mind or blackmail or somebody who has been jilted."

"I don't know the answer to that, and I don't want to pretend to," Gates quickly added, calling that "a question of legal interpretation."

The secretary said he and President Obama spoke about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” last week, and that the issue came up when all of the Combatant Commanders came together to meet at the Pentagon last month. He said the discussion with President Obama focused on how to move forward to change the policy and how to ask Congress to change the law.

Spokesperson Bryan Whitman denied that Gates requested this review because he believes that the law has been enforced unfairly or improperly.

By Bill Miller / Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Joint operations between Fort Worth police and the Texas Alcohol Beverage Commission have been suspended during investigations into an inspection early Sunday that resulted in the injury of a man at a new gay club near the city’s hospital district.

Chief Jeff Halstead on Thursday announced a series of actions relating to the early-morning incident Sunday at the Rainbow Lounge on Jennings Street, which has drawn protests from the gay community.

Halstead also said he would conduct a review of "multicultural training" for police officers to ensure that the information is "up to date" on issues that concern the gay community.

Meanwhile, the man who was hurt, 26-year-old Chad Gibson, was still in fair condition at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth where he was being treated for a head injury.

On Wednesday, TABC officials acknowledged that Gibson had been in the custody of a TABC agent who was participating in an inspection the bar.

Fort Worth police and TABC officials have said they are conducting their own internal investigations into what happened.

But Halstead on Thursday suspended joint operations between the two agencies "until we gain a better understanding of the events that occurred at the Rainbow Lounge," according to a news release from Sgt. Pedro Criado, police spokesman.

"Furthermore," Criado added, "Chief Halstead desires to learn about the historical relationship between the TABC and the Fort Worth Police Department."

The news release also stated that Halstead planned to meet with TABC officials "to establish clearly defined roles and responsibilities of each organization with the intent to better serve the community in conducting inspections."

Criado noted that Halstead wants to meet with community leaders to get their advice on how police can improve their service to everyone.

Protesters have complained that excessive force was used by police and TABC agents during the inspection, which has also been referred to as a "raid."

According to earlier reports, six Fort Worth police officers, two TABC agents and a supervisor entered the Rainbow Lounge about 1 a.m. Sunday to check for alcohol-related violations.

Inside, some customers made "sexually explicit motions," according to police, and one grabbed an officer’s crotch.

Officers took more than 20 people outside for questioning and seven were arrested on suspicion of public intoxication, police said. The TABC said only five were arrested, four men and one woman.

Halstead has said that the department received about 500 calls but that only two were from people who had been at the bar. Investigators need to hear from witnesses, not just from people who want to complain, he said.

David Reed, president of the Tarrant County Lesbian/Gay Alliance, said he was pleased to hear the chief’s announcements on Thursday.

"I think all of it’s great; we can start with that," Reed said. "I look forward to seeing them implemented."

Reed added that he was glad Halstead pledged earlier this week to appoint a department liaison to the gay community.

But Reed also noted that members of the gay community are still angry and they conveyed their opinions Thursday at a candlelight vigil for Gibson. It was held outside the Rainbow Lounge.

"I think it puts a burden on the Fort Worth Police Department to be diligent in pursing opportunities to build bridges with the gay community," he said. "I was at the vigil, and there still is some pretty serious anger, which has not died down."

By Catherine Philp / London Times

An Iraq war veteran has been ordered out of the US military after publicly announcing his homosexuality in a direct challenge to the army’s controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

Lieutenant Dan Choi, who speaks fluent Arabic, outed himself in March in the military journal Army Times and on national television at the launch of Knights Out, an association representing gay and lesbian graduates of West Point military academy.

He said that his declaration was a protest against a policy that forced soldiers to lie in order to serve their country. “It’s an immoral code that goes against every single thing we were ever taught at West Point with our honour code,” he said.

As the New York National Guard weighed his fate, Lieutenant Choi, 28, spoke out at more gay rights events, appearing most recently as a celebrity grand marshal in Sunday’s Gay Pride march in San Francisco.

On Tuesday a military board recommended that he should no longer be recognised as an officer, a decision that must be finally approved by superiors but which amounts to an effective discharge.

Lieutenant Choi vowed to fight the decision, saying that it amounted to firing him “for nothing more than telling the truth about who I am”. He added: “I’m a leader. A setback is an opportunity to keep fighting, and I’m going to do that through my actions.”

His departure will be a significant loss for the military. At West Point he majored in Arabic language and environmental engineering, skills that he put to use during a 15-month tour of Iraq beginning in 2006.

He led combat patrols in the Triangle of Death and served as a translator and teacher of Arabic to troops. He used his engineering skills in helping to rebuild schools and hospitals.

From Barbara Starr

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The American soldier abducted in southeastern Afghanistan is now being held by a notorious militant clan, a senior U.S. military official said.

This soldier and three Afghan soldiers were captured by low-level militants and then quickly "sold" to the clan and network led by warlord Siraj Haqqani -- believed to be deeply involved in the action.

The Haqqanis -- who operate on both sides of the Afghanistan-Pakistan border and are well known to the U.S. military -- are assembling shuras, or local councils of leaders, to talk and try to "legitimize" what they have done, the official said.

U.S., Afghan and Pakistani troops are sealing off the area and also are talking to tribal chiefs, village elders and leaders.

They are telling them to "do the right thing and solve this," the official said.

The U.S. military is telling people not to let Haqqani operatives move through their area and to find the American and return him. The military wants to make sure there is "no shelter" for the militants holding him.

"We want to make sure there is no place to hide," the official said.

The soldier, missing since Tuesday, did apparently leave his small outpost on his own with no apparent means of defending himself, and the U.S. military believes a video of him is forthcoming.

The Taliban earlier claimed responsibility for the abduction. The U.S. soldier was kidnapped along with three Afghan soldiers, Taliban commander Mulvi Sangeen said.

The U.S. soldier visited a military post in the Yousaf Khel district in the Paktika province and got drunk, Sangeen said. He was ambushed while returning to his car and was taken to a safe place, Sangeen said.

CNN could not independently verify Sangeen's claims.

A source with the U.S. military denied the claim that the soldier was drunk.

"The Taliban are known for lying and what they are claiming are not true," the source said.

The soldier's family has been informed, the military said.

By Derrick Perkins / Salem Observer

Family and friends of Army Staff Sgt. Edmond L. Lo gathered to say goodbye before laying to rest the soldier described by those who knew him as a “true American hero.”

On Saturday, June 27, members of the community reached out to offer support to the family of the third Salem serviceman killed in Iraq since 2006. Residents waited at street corners and waved flags as the motorcade carrying Lo’s casket made its way to Pine Grove Cemetery in Salem.

Lo, 23, died on June 13 in Iraq after the bomb he was defusing detonated. A 2004 graduate of the Salem High School, Lo was serving with the U.S. Army’s 797th Ordnance Company, 79th Battalion, based at Fort Hood, Texas.

Homeowners stood in their driveways, some with hands and hats pressed over their hearts, as the procession passed.

Led through the center of town with local and state police escorts as well as Patriot Guard Riders, the motorcade passed through the parking lot of the high school where participants in Saturday’s Relay for Life lined the street. Both the Department of Public Works and the Fire Department turned out as well, waving flags from their vehicles parked along Geremonty Drive.

Retired Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Thomas Puzzo, an aerospace instructor at Salem High School, recalled Lo as a quiet and competent leader from his days in the Junior ROTC program at the June 27 ceremony celebrating the fallen soldier’s life.

“On that fateful day two weeks ago, a proud American gave his life for his country,” Puzzo said during his eulogy for Lo. “It was a selfless act of courage that will forever make him a hero, a legitimate hero. “On the drill floor he would dedicate himself to helping one cadet with commitment and selflessness. That was the Cadet Lo I remember, and I have no doubt that was Staff Sgt. Lo,” he added.

A 2004 graduate of the high school, Lo commanded the color guard, drill team and operations squadron during his time in the ROTC program. At the calling hours Friday, June 26, fellow cadets, past and present, remembered him as a strong leader willing to do anything to reach out and help someone else.

“I was very good friends with him ... There are so many memories, but I can’t seem to remember one. It’s overwhelming,” said Dan King, a Marine and a 2003 graduate of both Salem High School and the ROTC program.

“He wanted to serve and that’s what he did,” said Army Specialist Mike Connors on Friday at the Douglas and Johnson Funeral Home on Main Street. “He had scholarship options and he turned them down.

Connors, who graduated from Salem High School in 2005, remembered Lo as a strong leader and bright young man from their days together in the Junior Air Force ROTC program. A year younger than Lo, Connors described looking up to him as a leader and a friend.

“He was a big part of the program. He was always early. He would come by my house at 5:30 in the morning to pick me up for practice before school,” Connors said. “He always knew what to do and did it right.”

Members of the program’s color guard turned out to salute Lo during Saturday’s services, standing alongside the U.S. Army honor guard as his casket arrived.

U.S. Army Brigadier General Jeffrey Snow, Lo’s division commander, said he regretted not knowing Lo personally, but praised him as one of the very best of the men and women in the armed forces.

“Ed was doing something he wanted to do, something he believed in ... As tragic as this loss is, I gain some solace in knowing that Ed was doing something he loved around those who loved him. His sacrifice will not be forgotten,” Snow said. “He dedicated his life to our protection. The land that was once called the last, best hope for mankind was built upon sacrifices like his.”

Gov. John Lynch – who gave his sympathies to the family at Friday night’s service along with Sen. Judd Gregg – also spoke, describing Lo as an articulate and dependable young man. On Friday, Lynch directed flags to be flown at half-staff across the state in honor of Lo.

“News of Edmond’s sacrifice has hit this community very hard. Edmond Lo joins a list of heroes from this town,” Lynch said, telling the family that “Salem and New Hampshire are here for you.”

As mourners drifted away from Lo’s gravesite in the veteran’s section of the Pine Grove cemetery, his older brother Raymond said the community and the military had been very supportive of his family, especially his parents. He said the services, which included a 21- gun salute and a rendition of “Taps” by members of the high school band, had been very nice.

“I thought it was very well done,” he said. “I thought it was done very honorably.”

By John Valenti and Sophia Chang / Newsday

A National Guardsman with Long Island roots was among the last four soldiers killed just before the U.S. pullback this week in Iraq. Sgt. Juan Carlos Baldeosingh, who grew up in Hempstead, was killed during the attack on Monday - one day before the pullback.

A former Marine, Baldeosingh, 30, was U.S. Army National Guardsman serving with the Multi-Nation Division Baghdad when he was killed.

He was on temporary leave from Carteret General Hospital in Morehead City, N.C., where hospital officials said he served as director of the risk management and safety department. He leaves behind his wife, Rebecca, and three daughters - Isabella, Kylie and Emily.

His sister, Jennyfer Baldeosingh of East Meadow, told Newsday her brother had called home nightly - and last called Sunday night to tell his mother he had to go into Baghdad the following day.

Baldeosingh told his mother to wait for his nightly call Monday, his sister said. It was the last time anyone in the family spoke to him, his sister said.

She said her brother, who was scheduled to return home next Thursday, was "a very fun-loving guy, a family guy" who was known as "a jokester."

As she said: "He always made you laugh. Always."

Baldeosingh was a graduate of Holy Trinity High School in Hicksville, where the school Web site had a death notice.

A message posted with the notice read: "With sadness and gratitude, the Holy Trinity Community prays for Juan, his family, and all of our brave servicemen and women."