US drone kills 10 in Pakistan
American drones have killed as many as 10 people in the first such missile strike since Barack Obama officially acknowledged the covert CIA programme.
The attack happened in North Waziristan, an area used by members of the Haqqani network to launch operations against international forces across the border in Afghanistan, according to local intelligence officials.
“Two missiles were fired on a compound killing at least 10 in a house believed to be in the use of militants,” said an intelligence official.
Foreign fighters may have been among the dead in the village of Tappi about 10 miles from the main town of Miranshah, he added.
The US had long declined to comment on the use of unmanned drones against militant targets in Pakistan.
The programme is hugely controversial and blamed by Pakistani politicians for turning tribesmen into Jihadis.
However, last month Mr Obama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize shortly after taking office, confirmed that the US was using unmanned aircraft in the skies over Pakistan.
“For the most part, they’ve been very precise precision strikes against al Qaeda and their affiliates, and we’re very careful in terms of how it’s been applied,” he said in a webchat.
Mr Obama’s administration has ramped up the use of drones as ground forces struggle to contain the militant threat in Afghanistan.
Tactics include targeting funeral gatherings and rescuers at the scene of recent attacks, according to research published by the Bureau of Investigative Reporting at the weekend.
The strikes were halted in November last year. Relations between the two allies nosedived in the aftermath of a Nato cross-border raid which killed 24 Pakistani troops.
However, the drones have since restarted their missions even though Pakistan has yet to re-open its roads to Nato supply convoys en route to Afghanistan.
(Source: telegraph.co.uk)
