13 killed in latest US drone strike in North Waziristan

Islamabad, Jun.19 (ANI): At least 13 people were killed and seven others injured in the latest US drone attack in Pakistan’s restive North Waziristan area on Saturday.

According to reports, unmanned Predator aircrafts fired two missiles on a suspected militant hide out in Anzar area of Mir Ali Tehsil in North Waziristan killing nearly 13 persons on the spot.

Panic prevailed in the region as locals expected more such missile hits, with drones still hovering over the region at the time reports last came in.

“Rescue efforts were being hampered as drone is still taking flights in the area,” The Xinhua news agency quoted a local journalist Nasir Dawar, as saying.

This was the 216th drone strike, which have killed over 900 people, mostly civilians, in the troubled northwest tribal areas of Pakistan since 2008.

The missile hit has come at a time when President Obama’s Special Envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke is in Islamabad.

Earlier this month a report by a top UN official had criticised the Obama administration for continuing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operated drone attacks in the semi-autonomous tribal areas of Pakistan, as it has resulted in countless civilian deaths.

UN’s special rapporteur on extra judicial, summary or arbitrary executions Phillip Alston, in his report, argued that drone strikes amount to a “license to kill” without being held accountable, a license the U.S. would not want any other country to have.

While the Obama administration is yet to publicly accept responsibility for the drone hits, the CIA maintains that the attacks carried out by the unmanned aircraft are in fact overseen by the White House and Congress, and refuted reports that the agency lacked accountability. (ANI)