Drone attack in North Waziristan kills six, injures two suspected militants

Drone fires two missiles at house in Shawal area of North Waziristan

BANNU: At least six suspected militants were killed and two others were injured when a US drone fired two missiles at a house in tehsil Shawal of North Waziristan Agency on Saturday evening.

A local source in the area said that a US drone fired two missiles at a house. The source added that six people, including foreigners, were killed and two others were injured in the strike, so far. The source added that the house was also destroyed in the attack.

"According to internal conversations of the militants,
members of Taliban and foreign militants believed to
be Arabs were killed in the drone strike," said a security
official in Miranshah, the headquarters of the mountainous
region of North Waziristan along the border.

Locals were busy pulling bodies out of the debris.

This is the first drone attack in the ongoing month.

In April, a report claimed that US President Barak Obama secretly approved a waiver for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) drone programme in Pakistan, doing away with certain requirements that were meant to reduce the risk of civilian deaths.

The revelations came after the recent admission and apology by the US president that American aid worker Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto who were killed by a US drone strike. Had there been no exemption, the CIA would have been required to gather more intelligence before conducting the strike, the report noted.

According to the Bureau Investigates, between 2,449-3,949 people have been killed in 415 drone strikes in Pakistan since 2004. The last strike as recent as April 12, 2015.

Of those killed, between 423-962 were civillians and 172-207 were children.