New US drone strike kills nine in northwestern Pakistan
A fresh US drone attack has claimed the lives of at least nine people in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border, officials say.
Local Pakistani intelligence officials said the strike was carried out in the remote Shawal Valley of North Waziristan tribal region on Saturday.
The sources said the US drone fired at least two missiles and completely destroyed a compound in the militancy-riddled region.
There were no exact information and details about the identity of those killed in the latest US aerial attack. However, Pakistani officials say the latest strike targeted Afghan Taliban, who are currently operating across the troubled region.
Most of the Taliban factions are active on both sides of the porous Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
The US regularly uses drones for airstrikes and spying missions in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt near the Afghan border.
US civilian and military authorities claim that the targets of the CIA-operated drone attacks are militants, but local residents maintain that civilians have been the main target of the deadly strikes over the past few years.
US President Barack Obama has repeatedly defended the use of the controversial drones as “self-defense.”
The developments come as public discontent and anger is on the rise against thr US drone attacks and its military presence in the troubled region.
The US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 prompted Taliban militants to cross the border into Pakistan.
International organizations and human rights groups say the US drone strikes in Pakistan pose a growing challenge to the international rule of law.
JR/HJL/HMV
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