Six militants killed in latest US drone strike in North Waziristan

ISLAMABAD - At least six suspected militants were killed in a US drone strike in restive North Waziristan’s Miramshah region, security officials said.

According to reports, unmanned Predator drones fired two missiles at a vehicle parked outside a compound, which was believed to be a terrorist hideout.

Six people were killed and three others were injured in the missile hit, a senior security official told a foreign news agency.

Officials, however, did not mention whether any “high value target” was present at the time of attack in the ungoverned tribal region.

Local residents said militants cordoned off the area immediately after the attack and were seen removing the debris, The Dawn reports.

The latest attack comes just days after nine extremists were killed in a similar missile hit about 25 miles west of Miramshah, the main town in North Waziristan.

Earlier this month, 14 suspected Taliban extremists, including top militant commander, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, were killed in a couple of missile hits in the region.

US drone attacks routinely target Taliban and Al Qaeda commanders in Pakistan’s lawless tribal regions along the Afghanistan border.

A US drone strike in Miranshah in February killed Muhammad Haqqani, a brother of al Qaeda-linked warlord Sirajuddin Haqqani, whose network is fighting against US and local forces in Afghanistan.

The frequency of missile hits has increased considerably in North Waziristan following a bomb attack on a CIA camp in Afghanistan in December last year, which killed seven top US intelligence officials.

Although Pakistan publicly opposes the attacks, saying they violate its sovereignty and fuel anti-Americanism among the population, it is believed that it was sharing intelligence with the US about the insurgents and their hide-outs. (ANI)