The US killed four "militants" in a drone strike in the jihadist hub of Datta Khel in Pakistan's Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan. The strike today is the first reported by the US in Pakistan in 23 days.
The CIA-operated, remotely piloted Predators or the more deadly Reapers fired a pair of missiles at a compound in Datta Khel earlier today. Four "militants" were killed in the strike, Pakistani intelligence officials and a local shopkeeper told AFP. The compound that was targeted caught fire after the strike and the bodies of those killed were badly burned.
The exact target of the strike was not disclosed. No senior al Qaeda or Taliban commanders or operatives are reported to have been killed.
Today's strike is just the first this month. The last strike, which also occurred in Datta Khel, took place on March 21. In that airstrike, four "suspected militants and their harborers" were said to have been killed.
The US has launched just 12 drone strikes in Pakistan so far this year, according to data compiled by The Long War Journal. The number of strikes in Pakistan has decreased since the peak in 2010, when 117 such attacks were recorded. In 2011, 64 strikes were launched in Pakistan, and in 2012 there were 46 strikes.
Continue & Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2013/04/4_militants_killed_i_1.php
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from hindustantimes:
At least four militants have been killed by a US drone strike on Sunday in Pakistan's northwestern tribal belt, security officials said.
The attack took place in Datta Khel town, 35 kilometres (22 miles) west of Miranshah, the main town in the lawless North Waziristan region which borders Afghanistan. The area is a stronghold of Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants.
Six US drones flew over the area when one of them fired two missiles at a compound in the Manzarkhel area of the town.
"The drones kept hovering at the compound for a while and then one drone fired two missiles at the time of sunset," a local security official said.
"At least four militants were killed in the strike," said the official.
Another security official in the northwestern city of Peshawar, which lies on the edge of the tribal region, confirmed the attack and the casualties.
An eyewitness said that the compound caught fire after the strike leaving all the bodies burnt.
"The bodies of the militants were severely burnt and it was hard to identify them," Haji Gul Badin, a local shopkeeper, said.
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