10 killed in US drone strike in North Waziristan

Islamabad, Jan.14 (ANI): At least 10 people were killed in a suspected US drone strike in the Miramshah region of North Waziristan on Thursday.

According to sources, unmanned US aircrafts fired two missiles at a house and a maddarsa in Garyom area of North Waziristan killing 10 people on the spot.

The attack comes just hours after Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi expressed serious concerns over such missile hits with the visiting US Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke.

Qureshi warned that the missile strikes or any ground operations inside Pakistan would affect bilateral ties between the US and Pakistan.

The US has ramped up the number of strikes since July 2008, and has continued to regularly hit at the Taliban and Al Qaeda targets inside Pakistan. There have been 104 strikes since the program began in 2004, 94 of those strikes have taken place since January 2008.

At least 15 senior and mid-level Al-Qaeda leaders, and four to five senior Taliban leaders, including the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) chief Mullah Omar have been killed in such attacks. (ANI)