Second U.S. drone missile strike kills eight in Pakistan: officials

The strike took place in the district of Mir Ali, northeast of Miranshah, the main town of the restive North Waziristan tribal district, officials said.

“At least eight people were killed in the drone attack. A compound used by militants was targeted,” a senior security official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Another security official described the target as a Taliban training centre in Palooseen village. There were foreigners among the dead, the official said, using a term employed widely in Pakistan to mean al-Qaida operatives.

North Waziristan neighbours South Waziristan, where Pakistan has been pressing its most ambitious offensive to date against homegrown Taliban militants since October 17, sending troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships into battle.

Northwest Pakistan has seen a surge in the U.S. strikes, which fan anti-Americanism in the nuclear-armed Muslim country, since President Barack Obama took office and put the country on the frontline of the war on Al-Qaeda.

Obama has reportedly increased pressure on Islamabad to fight not just Tehreek-e-Taliban, which launches attacks within Pakistan, but those using Pakistan as a base from which to fight the Kabul government and Western troops

in Afghanistan.

Another U.S. drone attack killed six militants, including three foreigners, in North Waziristan overnight Wednesday to Thursday, Pakistani officials said.

A foreign “terrorist” named Salah al-Somali was the target, but there was no confirmation on whether he died or not, Pakistani military officials said.

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