CIA drone attack kills ten fighters

AN AMERICAN drone aircraft killed ten suspected militants in Pakistan’s North Waziristan near the Afghanistan border yesterday, the fifth such strike this year.

The unacknowledged, CIA drone programme, a key element in US counter-terrorism efforts, was apparently halted after a November Nato air attack from across the Afghan border killed 24 Pakistani soldiers and enraged Pakistan.

The US resumed attacks with the missile-firing drones in north-west Pakistan on 10 January.