MIRANSHAH: A missile strike by a US drone Saturday killed four militants in Pakistan’s tribal belt, officials said.
The missile strike hit in Datta Khel village area near Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal district, officials said.
“A US drone fired three missiles. The target was a vehicle carrying militants. Four militants were killed,” a senior security official in Peshawar told AFP.
An intelligence official in Miramshah also confirmed the attack and toll.
Sixteen US drone attacks have been carried in just 22 days in North Waziristan.
The US missile strikes have killed about 100 militants since September 3 in the rugged tribal belt, which Washington has branded a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous spot on Earth.
Over 1,100 people have been killed in more than 130 drone strikes in Pakistan since August 2008, including a number of senior militants. However, the attacks fuel anti-American sentiment in the conservative Muslim country.
Al-Qaeda announced in June that its number three leader and Osama bin Laden’s one-time treasurer, Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, had been killed in what security officials said appeared to be a drone strike in North Waziristan.
Officials in Washington say the drone strikes have killed a number of high-value targets including Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud and help protect foreign troops in Afghanistan from attacks plotted across the border.
The missiles have mostly targeted militants linked with the Haqqani network, based in North Waziristan.
The US military does not as a rule confirm drone attacks but its armed forces and the US Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy the pilotless aircraft in the region.
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