US drone strike kills seven in Pakistan's tribal region

Rasa - At least seven people have lost their lives when a US unmanned aerial vehicle carried out a strike in northwestern Pakistan, security sources say.

News ID: 429283

Date: 28 April 2017 - 21:02

RNA - Local Pakistani security officials said Thursday that the strike had happened on Wednesday in the Lawara Mandi area of North Waziristan, a remote tribal region bordering Afghanistan.

"We have received reports of a drone attack in North Waziristan in which some seven militants have been killed," media outlets quoted a security official as saying.

Local intelligence officials said drones had been seen in the area before two missiles hit a house believed to be used by the pro-Taliban militant group, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

"There are two militant commanders, Abdul Rehman and Akhtar Mohammad among the dead," an unnamed intelligence official said.

The strike has been the second drone raid under the administration of US President Donald Trump.

In March, the previous US strike under the Trump administration killed two men riding a motorbike in northwestern Kurram Agency, one of tribal districts stretching along the border with Afghanistan.

The use of drones has proven extremely controversial with the Pakistani public and rights groups over human rights and sovereignty concerns.

In 2013, the UK-based rights group, Amnesty International, said the US could be guilty of war crimes by carrying out extrajudicial killings.

The aerial attacks, initiated by former US President George W. Bush in 2004, were escalated during Barack Obama’s terms in office.

The US carries out drone strikes in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya and elsewhere.

The US claims the airstrikes target members of terrorist groups, but according to local officials and witnesses, civilians have also been the victims of the attacks in many cases.

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