Geo Pakistan

Another US drone strike kills four in NWA

Updated at: 1054 PST,  Friday, May 20, 2011  MIRANSHAH: A US drone strike destroyed a vehicle in Pakistan's Taliban-infested North Waziristan district on the Afghan border Friday, killing four suspected militants, local officials said. The two missiles struck the Tappi area, 10 kilometres (six miles) east of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, where US officials want Pakistan to launch an offensive against networks fighting in neighbouring Afghanistan. "A US drone targeting a militants' vehicle fired two missiles killing four militants," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Another local security official confirmed the strike and casualties, saying the identity of those killed in the attack was not immediately known. Friday's attack was the seventh to be reported in Pakistan's tribal areas near the Afghan border since US commandos killed Saudi-born terror mastermind Osama bin Laden in a secret raid in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad on May 2. Pakistani analysts said any expectations that the CIA would abandon the drone campaign were misplaced, even if Pakistani leaders, for domestic political purposes, criticised the strikes. The drone strikes inflame anti-US feeling, which heightened further after the operation against bin Laden. Missile attacks doubled in the area last year, with more than 100 drone strikes killing over 670 people in 2010, compared with 45 strikes that killed 420 in 2009, according to an AFP tally. (AFP)