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Summary
A US drone attack on a compound in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt on Wednesday killed at least five militants, local security officials said. The target of the drone strike was a house in Inzarkas village in Dattakhel area, around 35 kilometres (20 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan.The drone fired two missiles on a house, at least five militants have been killed, an intelligence official in Miranshah told. A security official in Peshawar also confirmed the attack and the death toll. The strike is the latest in a series of US operations in the region which are believed to be targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda extremists plotting attacks on Europe. Residents in Miranshah said drones were still hovering in the sky while militants have surrounded the area after the attack. A security official in Peshawar said a vehicle parked outside the house was also destroyed in the attack. Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Tuesday that US drone attacks on Pakistani territory were counter-productive. We have successfully isolated the militants and local tribesmen, because we want that local tribesmen should support us, but when there is a drone attack that unites them (the tribesmen and the militants) again, he said. And this is the reason we say that they are counter-productive, he told reporters in northwestern city of Charsadda. The United States has massively ramped up its drone campaign in Pakistan's lawless northwest tribal region on the Afghan border, amid intelligence claims of a Mumbai-style terror plot to launch commando attacks on European cities.
