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29 March 2024

US drone strike kills 10 in Pakistan: officials

Published
By AFP

US drones on Wednesday fired a salvo of missiles, destroying a house and killing 10 militants in Pakistan's Taliban-infested tribal badlands close to the Afghan border, officials said.

Four missiles slammed into the compound in the Baber Ghar area of South Waziristan, killing at least 10 militants who were reported to be local Taliban fighters, the Pakistani security officials said.

The strike came a day after six militants were reported killed in a similar attack in Miranshah, the main town of the adjacent North Waziristan district.

"At least 10 militants have been killed. Most of them are local (Pakistani) Taliban," said a security official in Peshawar, the main city in the northwest, which neighbours the tribal belt that Washington considers an Al-Qaeda hub.

Another security official in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan, confirmed the strike and casualties.

US officials say Pakistan's tribal districts provide sanctuary to Taliban fighting in the 10-year war against US troops in neighbouring Afghanistan and to Al-Qaeda-linked militants plotting attacks on the West.

The United States refuses to discuss publicly drone strikes in Pakistan, but the programme has dramatically increased as the Obama administration searches for an end to a decade of fighting in Afghanistan.