Drone kills 10 militants in Pakistan

A US drone targeted a compound in the restive North Waziristan tribal area of Pakistan on Thursday, killing 10 suspected militants in the second such attack in as many days.

The CIA-operated spy plane fired two missiles at a compound in a village in North Waziristan Agency. The attack also caused damage to a nearby mosque, residents said.

Security sources claimed that those killed in the strike belonged to Turkmenistan and had recently moved to the area.

Four suspected militants were killed on Wednesday in a drone strike on a compound near Miranshah.

The strikes came days after President Asif Ali Zardari left the Nato Summit in Chicago without announcing any move to reopen supply lines for foreign forces in Afghanistan.

Islamabad condemns

Pakistan strongly condemned the drone strikes, describing them as “illegal” and a “total violation” of its sovereignty but said it intended to resolve all issues with the US through dialogue. Pakistan has a clear policy that the US drone attacks are “illegal, a violation of international law and unacceptable”, Foreign Office spokesman Moazzam Khan told a weekly news briefing.