MIRAMSHAH: Missiles from a US drone slammed into a car killing three militants Friday, the second such strike in two days in Pakistan's tribal region of North Waziristan, security officials said.
The northwest, rife with militant networks, has been the focus of a hail of bombings in the past month by US spy planes, as Washington targets militant groups it says Pakistan is struggling to tackle.
The morning attack by a drone aircraft struck a vehicle carrying suspected militants in Ghundikala village, 15 kilometres east of Miramshah, the main town of North Waziristan, close to the Afghan border.
“A US drone fired two missiles, targeting a vehicle and killing three militants,” a senior security official in the area told AFP.
“The identity of militants is not known yet. It is also not clear whether any high value target was present in the area when the attack took place.”
Another security official confirmed the strike and the casualties. Both officials requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the US strikes in Pakistan, which have inflamed anti-American sentiment.
“We saw a vehicle engulfed in flames after the missile strike,” a local tribesman in the area told AFP by phone on condition of anonymity.
“It was difficult to go close to the vehicle as it was surrounded by militants, who later removed dead bodies from the wreckage.”
It was not clear which group was targeted.
North Waziristan is rife with Taliban militants, Al-Qaeda fighters and members of the powerful Haqqani network, which is known for staging attacks on foreign troops in Afghanistan.
The bombing comes the morning after a US drone attack killed four militants in Machikhel village, about 25 kilometres east of Miramshah, after which officials suggested some of the dead were Al-Qaeda operatives.
Seven US missile strikes in the same area of North Waziristan have killed 44 people in the past month, although the identities of those killed are hard to verify as the deaths are deep in Taliban-controlled territory.
The region saw a rise in US strikes last year after President Barack Obama took office and established Pakistan as a front line in the war on Al-Qaeda.
The attacks on Pakistani territory fuel anti-Americanism in the nation and the government in Islamabad publicly condemns the strikes. Analysts say however the strikes have Islamabad's tacit approval.
More than 70 US drone missile strikes have killed at least 662 people in Pakistan since August 2008. The United States does not confirm drone attacks, but its military is the only force that deploys drones in the region.
North Waziristan neighbours South Waziristan, where Pakistan has been focusing its most ambitious military offensive yet against home-grown Taliban militants. It sent about 30,000 troops into the region on October 17.
Obama's administration is pressuring Islamabad to crack down on not only the Pakistani Taliban, but also Al-Qaeda fighters and militants who cross the border and attack US and Nato forces stationed in Afghanistan.
He has put Pakistan at the heart of his new strategy for winning the eight-year war against the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan, saying success depends on dismantling militant sanctuaries along the porous frontier.
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