US drone strike kills 4 in North Waziristan

Pakistan

US drone strike kills 4 in North Waziristan

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At least four militants were killed in a US drone strike in Miranshah area of North Waziristan.

16 August,2011 07:29 am

The house was located in the bazaar in Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal area, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.Initial reports indicate two foreigners were among the dead, but their precise nationalities were not known, said the officials. The attack also injured two suspected militants, they said.The US has repeatedly demanded that Pakistan launch an offensive in North Waziristan since militants use the area to stage cross-border attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan.Pakistan has refused, saying its troops are stretched too thin by operations in other parts of the semiautonomous tribal region along the Afghan border. But analysts believe Pakistan is reluctant to target Afghan Taliban militants with whom it has historical ties and could be useful allies in Afghanistan after foreign troops withdraw.As a result, the Obama administration has dramatically increased the number of drone attacks in the tribal region, especially in North Waziristan. The US refuses to speak publicly about the drone programme in Pakistan, but officials have said privately that the strikes have killed senior Taliban and al-Qaida commanders.Pakistani officials regularly condemn the strikes as violations of the countrys sovereignty, but the government is widely believed to have supported the attacks in the past, and even let drones take off from bases in Pakistan.That support has come under strain as relations between Pakistan and the U.S. have deteriorated, especially in the wake of the covert U.S. raid that killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani army town on May 2.