US drone strike kills 11 in NWA

MIRANSHAH: A US drone attack on Monday killed 11 people in a restive northwestern Pakistani tribal area, security officials said.

The pilotless plane fired eight missiles on a compound in the Shawal area of the troubled North Waziristan tribal district on the Afghan border.

Eleven bodies have been recovered from the rubble while the death toll is likely to rise.

The compound in Shawal district is 50 kilometres (30 miles) southwest of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal district, near the Afghan border.

Following the attack, more than five US drones kept flaying over the area, hampering the rescue work.

Washington considers Pakistan's semi-autonomous northwestern tribal belt the main hub of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants plotting attacks on the West and in Afghanistan.

In a similar attack at the start of July, six militants were also killed and an attack on June 4 killed 15 militants, including senior Al-Qaeda figure Abu Yahya al-Libi.

There has been a dramatic increase in US drone strikes in Pakistan since May when a NATO summit in Chicago could not strike a deal to end a six-month blockade on NATO supplies crossing into Afghanistan.

On July 3 however, Islamabad agreed to end the blockade after the United States said sorry for the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers in botched air strikes last November. (Geo News/AFP)