NOVANEWS
MIRANSHAH: At least four people were killed and four others were injured on early Wednesday by a suspected US drone strike in North Waziristan region, DawnNews reported.
the US drone fired two missiles at a house in Chashma Village, area of Miranshah, killing four and injuring four others. More deaths feared.
The wounded were shifted to nearby hospital, where injured were stated to be in critical condition.
This is the first reported drone strike in Pakistan since the May 11 general elections, won by the Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N).
Incoming prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who is preparing to take power in the first week of June, has called the drone strikes a “challenge” to his country’s sovereignty and said Washington must take Pakistani concerns seriously.
Imran Khan, whose Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaf (PTI) is set to form a coalition government in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and will be the largest opposition party in the National Assembly, had also vowed to put an end to US drone attacks if voted into power.
North Waziristan region is considered a bastion of Taliban and al Qaeda-linked militants.
Earlier, the Pakistan’s interim government on Friday repeated its view that US drone strikes in its territory were illegal, after President Barack Obama laid out new guidelines for their use.
The US president mounted a firm defence of his covert drone war as legal and just in a major speech on counter-terrorism policy on Thursday but warned that undisciplined use of the tactic would invite abuses of power.
Islamabad said it welcomed some aspects of Obama’s address, particularly his acknowledgement that “force alone cannot make us safe”, but it remained firm on its long-held public stance on unmanned missile attacks in its tribal northwest.
“The Government of Pakistan has consistently maintained that the drone strikes are counter-productive, entail loss of innocent civilian lives, have human rights and humanitarian implications and violate the principles of national sovereignty, territorial integrity and international law,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Obama said he had approved new guidelines stating that drone strikes can only be used to prevent imminent attacks and when the capture of a suspect is not feasible and if there is a “near certainty” that civilians will not be killed.
According to Britain’s Bureau of Investigative Journalism, CIA drone attacks in Pakistan have killed up to 3,587 people since 2004, up to 884 of them civilians.
