US drone strike kills 4 in North Waziristan: Officials
The strike took place in the Degan area of North Waziristan, known as a bastion of Taliban and al Qaeda.
"US drones fired four missiles on a compound, killing four militants," a senior security official told AFP.
The official said several drones were flying in the area at the time of the attack.
Another security official confirmed the strike and casualties.
He said the area had been the target of US drone strikes in the past, which killed several foreign militants.
The district is a stronghold of the Hafiz Gul Bahadur militant group, he said, adding that militants from the Afghan Taliban allied Haqqani network also operate in Degan.
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.
Washington has long demanded that Pakistan take action against the Haqqanis, whom the United States accused of attacking the US embassy in Kabul last September and acting like the "veritable arm" of Pakistani intelligence.
Pakistan has in turn demanded that Afghan and US forces do more to stop Pakistani Taliban crossing the border from Afghanistan to launch attacks on its forces.
There has been a dramatic increase in US drone strikes in Pakistan since May, when a NATO summit in Chicago failed to strike a deal to end a six-month blockade on convoys transporting supplies to coalition forces in Afghanistan.
Islamabad and Washington have been seeking to patch up their fractious relationship in recent months, with the supply route reopening, after a series of crises in 2011 saw ties between the "war on terror" allies plunge.
But 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.
Washington considers Pakistan's semi-autonomous northwestern tribal belt as the main hub of Taliban and al Qaeda militants plotting attacks on the West and in Afghanistan.
Earlier, Afghanistan’s spy agency said that the operational commander of the al Qaeda-linked Haqqani network responsible for spectacular attacks on Kabul, Badruddin Haqqani had been killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan.
Meanwhile, a day after Pakistan formally protested to the United States over a string of “unlawful” drone strikes in its tribal regions, remotely-piloted aircraft carried out three sorties in North Waziristan Agency, killing over a dozen people.
COMMENTS (17)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
1726117332-0/Megan-Thee-Stallion-(1)1726117332-0-165x106.webp "article")
WELL DONE.....I would request Obama Administration to launch a clean up Drone Operation across Afghanistan and Pakistan Border Regions.....and Please Raze all compounds once for ever......Those who give shelter them are equally supporting Radicals and these beasts.....
Villagers Celebrate after death of each Pakistani Soldier....So One should see, the level of support for militancy.....
We need to take out innocent women and children from influence of these beasts....
DRONES KEEP UP.....
PAKISTANIS submit salutation.
THANK YOU AMERICA
Thank you America for doing what our corrupt, well-funded with dollars army has been unable to do.
Thank you America for destroying the terrorists who if not eliminated will one day destroy Pak.
Thank you America for helping us go down the path of being safer, though we still have a long ways to go.
Thank you America for saving a few Pak lives, who undoubtedly would one day have been killed had those terrorists not been killed.
Thank you America for saving us from ourselves!
Dear liberals, do you think beheading of soldiers will stop now after hundreds of drone attacks? Can you not even see beyond your own propaganda?
@Hassaan There are a lot of Taliban and there a a lot of people people who are harboring them. These people sympathize with the Taliban and do takfir on everyone who disagrees with them. They are bigots filled with arrogance and false pride and only understand the language of violence.
Astonished to read some above comments. We all are happily CONVINCED that these Drones kill some TTP or afghan Taliban. My question. Over 2000 people have been killed since the first Drone attack. Were all these militants? If yes, then TTP should have vanished by now. People are being targeted in the Drones are all INNOCENT ppl. You guys keep live in your fantasy world
well , go ahead and kill them all , even those who praise them and give shelter to them.
Thanks USA !
Mark my words - these drones are the saviours of Pakistan. They will do what Pak Army has failed to do for the last 15 years. As for Imran Khan, DPC, Gen Hamid Gul who want to negotiate with them - shame on you! Where are you hiding now when so many soldiers have been beheaded? Where are you when daily 10 shias are killed? Where are you when bomb blasts happen aroudn the country killing innocent people?
Keep it deep to the throat of TTP and their supporters. In war, some civilian casualities are expected, but it is unavoidable.
But these are good talibans and country's stratagic assets who are being killed.Only bad taliban deserve to die.A great loss indeed!!
Shows the extent of all the hollow protests and its effect on US ! Why bother protesting in first place ? Just invite them into the Country to clean up the mess created by yourselves in your flawed wisdom of your greatness !
The meaning of innocent in Pakistan: - Terrorists. Even when caught are let off by the courts. - People. Those who harbour the terrorists in their houses are automatically innocent.
Do they still think that once the US is out of the game in Afghanistan, the Taliban terrorists will throw away their AK-47, rockets and grenades and take up axes, shovels and other tools to start a new life? Had they done it after the withdrawal of the USSR forces from Afghanistan in the early 1990s? This is how fools think about this whole issue. Given that Afghanistan will be an easy target for them and that they will be boundlessly encouraged after the withdrawal of the US and NATO forces, these newly triumphant and power-hungery beasts will rather turn their guns full-time at Pakistan and try to grab power under the cloak of imposing Shariah. Their real motive is to grab power at the barrel of the gun regardless of whether the US is in or out of Afghanistan.
Qari Hussain (Ustadul-Fidaeen), Baitullah Mehsud (chief of TTP), Naik Muhammad (one of the founding fathers of TTP), Ilyas Kashmiri (the man behind attacks on GHQ and ISI offices), Mullah Dadullah and Mullah Abdur Rehman, among many other prominent Taliban commanders, have all been killed in drone attacks. We should all be immensely thankful to the US forces and CIA for eliminating these beasts.
@Mirza, those who are chopping off the heads of Pakistani soldiers are living safe and sound in Afghanistan. Those who are getting killed in NWA by Drones are mostly the good Taliban...
Thank you USA for avenging the murder of 12 Pakistani soldiers who were beheaded yesterday by the savages of TTP hiding in North Waziristan!!
I am sure nobody would be upset on these drone attacks after the beheading of our soldiers. It is a shame that we don't do anything against these savages however; there is a God after all. Thanks to the coalition forces for avenging our dead.