5 killed in drone strike in Miranshah
11 October, 2012
MIRANSHAH: A US drone strike targeting an insurgent's compound killed five terrorists in a tribal region near the Afghan border on Wednesday, security officials said. The attack was the first since a massive anti-drone rally last weekend near the lawless region known as a stronghold of Taliban and al Qaeda terrorists, they said. "Several US drones flew into the area before dawn and fired four missiles on a compound, killing five terrorists," a security official told AFP after the strike in Hurmuz area, east of Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan. Another security official in Peshawar confirmed the attack and casualties. The identities of those killed in the strike were not immediately clear. The al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network in North Waziristan, blamed for some of the deadliest attacks in Afghanistan, is one of the thorniest issues between Islamabad and Washington. The attacks by unmanned US aircraft remain contentious - they are deeply unpopular in Pakistan, which says they violate its sovereignty and fan anti-US sentiment, but American officials are said to believe they are too important to give up. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan led thousands of supporters on a long drive from Islamabad to South Waziristan in a two-day protest against US drone strikes. End.
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