Haqqani militants die in North Waziristan drone strike

AMERICAN drones fired a barrage of missiles at a vehicle and a house in a Pakistani tribal area bordering Afghanistan yesterday, killing at least five suspected militants.

The strikes in North Waziristan were the first since news that a top commander of the powerful Haqqani militant network had been killed in a drone strike last month. Two intelligence officials said US drones fired seven missiles at targets in the village of ­Degan, close to the Afghan border.

They said the area is dominated by anti-American militant commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, but they did not know whether the men killed belonged to his group.

Bahadur’s faction is alleged to have been involved in frequent attacks on coalition troops in Afghanistan, but shies away from operations in Pakistan. Several recent drone strikes have killed militants affiliated with the group.

The CIA-run drone programme is controversial in ­Pakistan, where many call it an infringement on national sovereignty and claim it has caused a high number of civilian casualties. Washington counter claims that it is a necessary and effective tool in combating militants and denies causing civilian deaths.

A drone strike last week in North Waziristan killed Badruddin Haqqani, a son of the founder of the Haqqani network. Badruddin was considered the organisation’s day-to-day operations commander.

America has blamed the group for high-profile attacks in Afghanistan and considers it a key factor in undermining security there.

The presence of the mostly Afghan Haqqani network in North Waziristan has been a source of friction between Pakistan and the US. The US has repeatedly demanded that ­Pakistan prevent the group using its territory to launch attacks in Afghanistan.