Six killed in North Waziristan

US missiles target militants in the tribal belt, killing six men returning from an insurgent bastion in Afghanistan.

MIRAMSHAH: A salvo of US missiles targeted militants in the tribal belt on Thursday, killing six men returning from an insurgent bastion in Afghanistan, security officials said.

Six missiles slammed into the group in North Waziristan. The missiles targeted the group about 12 kilometres from Miramshah, in an area that borders Khost in eastern Afghanistan.

“Several unmanned US aircraft fired six missiles targeting militants in Gulli Khel village near the Ghulam Khan district of North Waziristan,” the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The official said that the militants had been returning on foot from Afghanistan, although a local intelligence source in Miramshah said that the US missiles targeted a compound of militants from the Haqqani network.

Thursday’s strike was the second this week, after a similar operation killed at least nine suspected fighters near Miramshah on Sunday.

Around 220 people have been killed in more than 40 strikes since September 3.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 12^th, 2010.