US drone kills 5 in South Waziristan

An American spy aircraft Wednesday fired missiles into South Waziristan tribal region and killed at least five people, security officials said.

Two missiles were fired on a house in Sararogha area early morning, completely destroying the building.

All those in the compound were killed and injured, officials said.

They said that the compound was being used by suspected Taliban militants.

It is second US strike in Waziristan tribal region in four days.

At least four people were killed while several more were injured by a US drone strike on Sunday in North Waziristan.

Pakistan publicly condemns U.S. drone attack and describes such unilateral attacks as in contravention of International Law and counterproductive to the stability of the country.

The Foreign Ministry says that Pakistan has maintained its position that drone strikes are violative of its territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Officials also say that such attacks also set dangerous precedents in the inter-state relations and urge the U.S. Government to stop such attacks based on mutual respect and established international norms.

Despite Pakistan’s protest, the US has refused to stop drone attacks saying that the al-Qaeda and Taliban use the tribal regions of Pakistan for cross-border attacks into Afghanistan.

Former President Pervez Musharraf reportedly admitted last week that he had secretly granted permission to the United States on a “few occasions” to carry out drone strikes inside Pakistan.

Pakistan officially said that no approval has ever been given to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to operate drones.

Musharraf told CNN on Thursday that permission was granted ” only on very few occasions where target was absolutely isolated and had no chance of collateral damage.”

He put the number of such instances at “maybe two or three times only”, adding these strikes were discussed within the military and intelligence establishment and cleared only “if there was no time for our own SOTF (Special Operations Task Force) and military to act.”

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=39929

Posted by Tahir Khan on Apr 17 2013. Filed under Latest News, National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.