Washington, December 27: At least five people have been killed and several others injured in a US drone attack in northwestern Pakistan, the third such attack in the past ten days in the area.
“Five militants were killed,” in the missile attack on Saturday, AFP news agency quoted an unnamed Pakistani intelligence official as saying.
Local Pakistani news outlets said The missiles struck the “residential compound of” a local tribesman, Asmatullah, in the village of Babar Raghzai in Saidgai in North Waziristan near Afghanistan.
Saturday’s drone attack is at least the third since December 17 in North Waziristan.
Hundreds of Pakistanis, many of them civilians, have been killed in the attacks.
Pakistani officials have denounced the drone missile strikes but there have been reports that the US drones take off from airbases located in the Pakistani territory.
Despite civilian fatalities, there are reports that the US administration authorized the military and the Central Intelligence Agency to expand the use of unmanned American aircrafts in Pakistan.
A sharp rise in the number of the attacks is predicted as the US defense department is expected to buy 700 drones next year alone.
—Agencies