Drone strike kills 6 militants in Waziristan

BANNU: Six suspected militants were killed and two injured in a US drone strike in the Shawal Valley of North Waziristan Agency Saturday evening.

“A pilot-less aircraft fired two missiles at a house in the Warokey Mandi area of Shawal. The house was decimated, killing six militants, including foreigners, and injuring two others,” a local source told The Express Tribune by telephone.

Residents who pulled the casualties from the rubble feared that the death toll could be higher. The area is generally off-limits to journalists, making it difficult to independently verify either the number or identity of the dead.

North Waziristan had been a stronghold of local and foreign militants until June last year when the Pakistan Army mounted a massive operation, codenamed Zarb Azb. Since then, most parts of the agency have been cleared and hundreds of thousands of tribesmen displaced by fighting have started returning to their homes.


Published in The Express Tribune, May 17^th, 2015.