US drone strike kills 6 in Pakistan

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan

U.S. drones fired missiles into a compound and at a motorbike in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt, killing at least six militants yesterday, local security officials said.

The attack took place in Heso Khel village on the edge of Mir Ali town, around 35 kilometers east of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, a notorious stronghold of Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked militants.

Pakistani security officials told Agence France-Presse U.S. drones fired four missiles, two at a house and another two at a nearby motorbike, killing four militants in the house and two on the bike.

It was the fifth American drone strike reported in Pakistan in a week, the heaviest concentration since last August.

Yesterday’s strike brings to 36 the number of militants reported killed in Pakistan in five drone strikes since Jan. 3.

The covert strikes are publicly criticized by the Pakistani government as a violation of sovereignty but American officials believe they are a vital weapon in the war against Islamist militants.

U.S. drone strikes have killed a prominent warlord, Mullah Nazir who had sent insurgents to fight in Afghanistan, as well as nine other militants in Pakistan’s tribal belt on Jan. 4.