A US drone strike has killed at least 10 suspected militants in North Waziristan, officials said. The US drone fired four missiles on a compound and destroyed it completely in Dre-Nashtar in the Shawal area located 65 kilometers away in the west of Miranshah. However the identity of the killed men is still unknown. Sources said that the compound had been used as training center by the militants.
The Shewal area is a mountainous and green jungle area between South and North Waziristan and militants use it mostly as their safe place to live. This is the second drone attack in the troubled area Miranshah since March while Pakistan's Parliament approved new guidelines in the relations with US.
Pakistani officials in Islamabad strongly condemned the attack and asked US to stop violating the sovereignty of Pakistan. Foreign office spokesperson Moazam Ahmad Khan said; “Pakistan has consistently maintained that these illegal attacks are a violation of its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and are in contravention of international law. It is our considered view that the strategic disadvantages of such attacks far outweigh their tactical advantages, and are therefore, totally counter productive.”
Pakistan's political leaders also oppose the drones attack in the tribal belt and they say that the attacks are clear violation of our sovereignty as well as international law.
After the Abbottabad incident, killing Osama Bin Laden and then attack on Salala Check Post, Pakistan asked US to stop violating our sovereignty, killing civilians and creating more hate against Pakistan and its security forces. The attacks come amid American efforts to rebuild its relationship with Pakistan, which in November blocked the passage of U.S. and NATO war supplies to neighboring Afghanistan. The country's parliament has called for an end to the drone strikes, which many here regard as an unacceptable violation of sovereignty.
Pakistan also raised the issue with Marc Grossman, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, when he visited Islamabad last month amid efforts to mend fractured relations.
US President Barack Obama in January confirmed for the first time that US drones target militants on Pakistani soil, but American officials do not discuss details of the covert programme.
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