PESHAWAR - At least eight suspected militants were killed and two others injured in a US drone attack in North Waziristan Agency on Wednesday.
Sources said a US unmanned aircraft fired at least two missiles on a compound at Kund Sar village situated some 60 kilometers South of Miranshah, headquarters of North Waziristan Agency bordering Afghanistan.
Resultantly, eight suspected militants were killed and two others injured, they said. Besides, the targeted house was destroyed completely in the attack. The sources said that identification of those killed could not be ascertained till filing of this story. However, few of them are believed to be foreign militants. After the attack, the drones continued to fly above the area for some time.
"There may be more dead bodies under the rubble," a security official in the area told AFP via phone on condition of anonymity.
An intelligence official in the area confirmed the attack and said militants loyal to the warlord Gul Bahadur and the feared Haqqani network operate in the area, as well as foreign Uzbek fighters.
Another security official in Peshawar also confirmed the strike and said the Haqqani network and foreign militants are active in the area.
The drone strike hit a house in Datta Khel, near the Afghan border, which was used by militants, said a militant in the area. Those killed were Pakistani fighters, the militant said.
"The Government of Pakistan condemns the drone strike that took place in the early hours of Wednesday, 26 November at Garga, north of Shawal in North Waziristan Agency," the government said in a statement.
The Bureau of Investigative Journalist, which tracks drone strikes using media reports, says there have been 20 strikes so far this year.
The strike came a day after Pakistani jet fighters killed 20 suspected members of the Haqqani network in North Waziristan. In a similar attack on October 30, a US drone strike killed at least seven militants including an important commander of the Haqqani network in the village of Nargas in South Waziristan.
The latest drone strike comes two days after Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Mullah Fazllulah narrowly escaped a US drone strike in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province near the Pak-Afghan border area.
The Pakistani military have launched a major offensive in North Waziristan on June 15 against local and foreign militants and have killed more than 1,500 militants so far, with 125 soldiers losing their lives.
In Pakistan, drone attacks are widely unpopular and according to survey conducted in June this year, 66 per cent of the country's citizens oppose these strikes.
The United States says it targets militants in the drone strikes, but does not release details about individual strikes. Some of them have killed civilians, although the majority of the dead are suspected militants.
Pakistan usually protests about the drone strikes, saying they are an infringement of its sovereignty. But many say the military has given its tacit acceptance, and point to the fact that were halted in Pakistan for six months earlier this year while the government tried to negotiate peace with the Taliban.
The attempt failed and the strikes resumed days before the military launched an anti-Taliban offensive in the border region of North Waziristan on June 15.
There has been little ground fighting in the offensive so far. Most of the casualties the military has reported come from air raids. On Tuesday, the military said it had killed 20 militants in aerial bombing.
The region is closed to journalists and most civilians were ordered to leave their homes before the fighting started, making it difficult to get independent witness accounts of the situation.
PAKISTAN CONDEMNS DRONE STRIKE
Staff Reporter from Islamabad adds: Pakistan on Wednesday condemned the drone strike that took place in the early hours on Wednesday at Garga, north of Shawal in North Waziristan Agency.
Foreign Office spokesperson in a statement said that Pakistan regards such strikes as a violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity and demands their immediate cessation. The spokesperson further said that the govt is itself taking decisive action against terrorist elements in North Waziristan Agency, thus rendering such strikes completely unnecessary.