Pakistan: US drone raid `kills 12` in N Waziristan
Baku, April 22 (AZERTAC). At least 12 people have died in a drone strike in the troubled Pakistani tribal region of North Waziristan, officials have told the BBC.
Four missiles were fired on a house in Spinwam, 40km (25 miles) northeast of the tribal region`s main town of Miranshah, officials said.
The identities of the dead were not immediately clear.
The area is a haven for al-Qaeda and the Taliban. More than 100 raids were reported in the area last year.
Friday`s strike comes a day after Pakistani army chief Gen Ashfaq Pervez Kayani told the US military`s top officer, Adm Mike Mullen, that drone strikes complicated Pakistan`s "national" war against the militants.
A local official said the missiles were fired at a large compound occupied by militants loyal to a local top commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur.
Several people were wounded in Friday`s attack, a local intelligence official was quoted as telling the AFP news agency.
The BBC`s Ilyas Khan in Islamabad says there have been few drone attacks in Spinwam, making it a comparatively safe place for militants who have been chased out of other militant strongholds in North Waziristan.
A drone strike in North Waziristan on 17 March killed some 40 people, most of them believed to be civilians attending a tribal meeting.
In rare public condemnation, Gen Kayani called that raid "intolerable and unjustified".
US drone attacks have escalated in north-west Pakistan since President Barack Obama took office.
They are hugely unpopular with the Pakistani public, correspondents say. Many militants, some of them senior, have been killed in the raids, but hundreds of civilians have also died.
The US does not routinely confirm it is conducting drone operations in Pakistan, but analysts say only American forces have the capacity to deploy such aircraft in the region.
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