U.S. drone strike kills 8 in NW Pakistan

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PAKISTAN — At least eight suspected militants were killed in a U.S. drone strike launched early Wednesday morning, reported local Urdu TV channel Samaa.

According to the local media reports, the strike took place at about 4:30 a.m. local time when U.S. drones fired six missiles at a house and a vehicle in Miranshal, capital town of North Waziristan, a restive tribal area along the Pak-Afghan border.

Details of the identities of the killed are not immediately available.

Wednesday morning’s U.S. drone strike is the first of its kind since the armed forces of Pakistan launched a massive operation against the local and foreign militants hiding in North Waziristan.

Early on Sunday morning, the Pakistani army launched a comprehensive operation codenamed “Zarb-e-Azb” in North Waziristan, a stronghold of militant groups along the Pak-Afghan border.

The operation started a week after Pakistan Taliban and an Uzbek militant group hiding in the country jointly launched a deadly attack on Jinnah International Airport in the country’s southern metropolitan of Karachi.

The Karachi airport attack, which left 40 people including 10 attackers killed and over 20 others wounded, smashed all the hopes for the peace talks with the Pakistan Taliban, which were initiated by the government led by Nawaz Sharif at the beginning of this year.

During the first day of the operation, the Pakistani army fighter jets launched an extensive strike on the militant hideouts in North Waziristan, reportedly killing 140 militants including the mastermind of the Karachi airport attack, Abu Rehman, an Uzbek militant group leader.

So far, over 200 militants have been killed and over a dozen militant hideouts have been destroyed in the operation, said the army, adding that eight soldiers also died in the operation.