PESHAWAR - At least eight militants, three Uzbeks and five Punjabis, were killed on Friday in two separate US drone strikes in North Waziristan Agency.
According to sources, it was around 4:30am when US drone hit reportedly a compound of Punjabi Taliban at Kund Ghar area of Shawal. As a result of which, five militants were killed, while the targeted house was destroyed completely. In the second strike, unmanned aircraft targeted militants’ compound at Mangroti area of Shawal killing three militants, stated to be of Uzbek origin. In this attack too, the compound was destroyed. Locals said that the US drones remained flying over the area for hours after the attacks. The attacks took place in the same area where the Pakistani army has been mounting an air-and-ground operation against Pakistani Taliban insurgents who are fighting against the government. Pakistan has stepped up operations against the militants in response to a December 16 school massacre in which more than 130 children have been killed, but details of its efforts are sketchy as independent journalists are not allowed in North Waziristan.
Areas along Pakistan’s porous border with Afghanistan are home to a range of domestic and foreign militants and the authorities have been under pressure to do more to eliminate the insurgents who cross into Afghanistan and stage attacks there.
The US drone strikes are deeply unpopular in Pakistan and the government is officially against them, even though many senior Pakistani Taliban commanders have been killed in such attacks in past years. US forces have carried out 16 drone strikes in 2014 in Pakistani tribal areas in which 95 militants have been killed.