A US drone strike targeting a vehicle in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt

A US drone strike targeting a vehicle in Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt on Monday killed at least four militants.

The unmanned aircraft fired two missiles, hitting a vehicle and a guest house of a local tribal elder in the Nurak area of North Waziristan.

The area is within the notorious tribal badlands that Washington calls a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda.

“The unmanned aircraft fired two missiles at the vehicle and killed at least four militants in the strike,” one security official told AFP on the condition of anonymity as he is not authorised to speak to media.

Nurak area is 20 kilometres (12 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town of the district of North Waziristan, considered a militant stronghold.

The security official said initial reports suggested that a group of militants were travelling in the vehicle at the time of the attack.

Two other Pakistani intelligence officials confirmed the drone strike and death toll.

Washington has called Pakistan’s semi-autonomous northwest tribal region the global headquarters of Al-Qaeda, where Taliban and other Al-Qaeda-linked networks have rear bases from which they launch attacks on NATO forces in Afghanistan.

Source AFP