Miranshsh - A US drone strike Friday killed at least seven suspected militants in a tribal district of northwest Pakistan, the first such attack since Nawaz Sharif was sworn in as prime minister this week.
The latest attack came just two days after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif called for an end to the American drone campaign.
The drone fired two missiles which hit a compound in Shokhel village in Shawal area, more than 100 kms southwest of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan Agency, which is known as a stronghold of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.
"The US drone fired two missiles targeting a militant compound and killing at least seven militants", a senior local security official told AFP.
The compound was destroyed in the attack, security officials were quoted as saying by TV news channels. A ‘high-value target’ was among those killed in the attack, a private TV channel reported but did not give details.
Reports suggest that TTP chief Hakeemullah Mehsud usually operates in Shawal area of North Waziristan.
On May 29, the deputy chief of the banned Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Waliur Rehman, was killed in another drone strike in North Waziristan.
The strikes by the CIA-operated spy planes are criticised by the Pakistan government as counter-productive for the war on terror. US officials say the drones are a vital weapon in the campaign against militants.
Many Pakistanis oppose US drone strikes because they say they the strikes kill large numbers of innocent civilians — something the US denies — and end up breeding more extremism by those seeking retribution.
The country's new Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, has lashed out against the US drone programme and called for an end to it.
On Thursday, families of Pakistani victims of US drone strikes wrote to new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif urging him to stop the campaign — by shooting the unmanned aircraft down if necessary.
Victims’ families and their lawyer Mirza Shahzad Akbar have written to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif urging him to heed the Peshawar High Court’s ruling, which called on the government to take the matter up at the UN Security Council.
“The court has ordered the government of Pakistan and its security forces to administer a proper warning to the United States that future drone strikes will not be tolerated,” Akbar wrote in the letter.
Akbar said that if Pakistan failed to persuade the US to stop the strikes through the United Nations, “the court has very clearly ordered to shoot down the drones”.