US drone attack kills five in Pakistan: officials

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US drone attack kills five in Pakistan: officials

By Hasbanullah Khan (AFP) – 12 hours ago

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan — A US drone fired two missiles into a vehicle in Pakistan's

tribal district of North Waziristan on Thursday, killing at least five suspected

militants, local security officials said.

It was the third such attack reported in Pakistan's tribal badlands on the

Afghan border, which Washington has dubbed the global headquarters of Al-Qaeda,

since US commandos killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani city near Islamabad.

" A US drone fired two missiles on a militants' vehicle in the Datta Khel area of

North Waziristan, " one Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of

anonymity.

" Five militants were killed, " the official added. Another local official

confirmed the strike and the toll, saying: " The target was a pick-up van. "

Intelligence reports from the area, which were not confirmed by more senior

officials, put the death toll as high as eight and said the dead included

" foreigners " -- a euphemism for Afghan Taliban, Uzbek militants or Al-Qaeda.

On Tuesday, a similar strike killed four militants near Angoor Adda village in

the neighbouring district of South Waziristan and last Friday eight suspected

militants were reported killed by US missiles in North Waziristan.

Washington does not confirm drone attacks, but its military and the CIA

operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy them in the region.

The US strikes doubled last year, with more than 100 drone strikes killing over

670 people, according to an AFP tally, and the CIA has said the covert programme

has severely disrupted Al-Qaeda's leadership.

But some experts say the discovery last week of bin Laden living hundreds of

kilometres from the tribal area, in the city of Abbottabad two hours' drive from

capital, exposes the limits of drone strikes to hit top terror targets.

US officials are now poring over a trove of intelligence obtained in the May 2

helicopter-borne raid on a suburban compound that killed the Al-Qaeda leader,

including a handwritten journal containing his " operational ideas " .

Al-Qaeda-inspired insurgents in Yemen and Somalia have threatened to avenge the

killing and are chillingly warning the West of a bloodier fight to come.

US drone strikes inflame anti-American feeling in Pakistan, which has worsened

since a CIA contractor shot dead two Pakistani men in a busy Lahore street in

January, and over the perceived impunity of the bin Laden raid.

The surgical operation by US Navy SEALs, seemingly carried out without the

knowledge of Islamabad or the country's powerful military leadership, has caused

widespread embarrassment in Pakistan.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani sought to defend the country in a speech to

parliament on Monday, fending off charges of complicity or incompetence over the

raid as " absurd " and criticising US " unilateralism " on its soil.