A non-UN-sanctioned US drone strike in Pakistan’s North Waziristan region has killed four people and injured several others.
The attack happened early on Sunday morning, Xinhua reported.
The unsanctioned US drone attacks in Pakistan’s tribal areas on the Afghan border have reached a new plateau.
The US conducted a record 124 drone attacks in the tribal areas of Pakistan in 2010, more than double the number of predator strikes conducted in 2009. The assaults killed 1,184 people in 2010, compared to 2009’s death toll of 760 in 53 attacks.
Most of the attacks took place in the North Waziristan tribal area — a hotbed of Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan and al-Qaeda-linked militants.
Though Washington at times has claimed it has an agreement with Islamabad about such attacks, the Pakistani authorities insist there has never been such a deal and that they view the airstrikes as repeated violations of the country’s sovereignty.
The missile strikes have proven “counterproductive” as large numbers of outraged residents of the border areas are beginning to support the militants, according to Pakistani officials.
“We believe that they are counter-productive and also a violation of our sovereignty,” Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said in early October.
“We hope that the US will revisit its policy.”
In late November, Islamabad rejected a request by Washington to expand its drone missile campaign outside the tribal belt along the Afghan border.
Basit said Pakistan would not allow the United States to carry out drone strikes in new areas.
Source: Press TV