Pre-dawn drone attack kills 10 militants in Pakistan

Colorado Star Wednesday 8th February, 2012

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - At least 10 suspected militants were killed in a pre-dawn US drone aircraft attack in a restive Pakistani tribal town, officials said Wednesday.

Missiles fired from a US drone hit a residential structure in Thapi village, 15 kms east of the town of Miranshah in North Waziristan near the Afghan border.

The house, said the officials, was suspected to be militant hideout and was completely destroyed.

Reuters quoted a villager as saying "almost all the men (in the attacked house) were burnt beyond recognition".

Officials said the dead included foreign fighters who were active in the area, dominated by known militant commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur.

North Waziristan is a known hub of militant groups, including the Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda whose cadres take advantage of a porous border with Afghanistan to cross over for attacks.

The restive district also houses the Haqqani network, an Afghan militant faction allied with the Taliban.

The latest attack comes days after US President Barack Obama spoke for the first time publicly about the covert drone operations by the Central Investigating Agency (CIA) to target militants in Pakistan.

Drone attacks have stirred tensions in already uneasy US-Pakistan ties.

In his unusually candid remarks, Obama said the strikes targeted "people who are on a list of active terrorists" and denied civilians were being hit.

"For the most part, they've been very precise precision strikes against Al Qaida and their affiliates, and we're very careful in terms of how it's been applied."