US drone strikes kill 15 as Pakistan blocks Nato supplies

Two US drone strikes killed 15 militants yesterday in a lawless tribal belt in Pakistan, where a land route for Nato supplies was blocked for a third consecutive day, officials said.

Officials in Washington say its drone strikes in the region have killed several high-value targets, including Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud, and help protect troops in Afghanistan from attacks plotted across the border.

However, drone attacks are a sensitive issue in Pakistan as the attacks also fuel anti-American sentiment in the conservative Muslim country.

In the latest strikes, US missiles hit two villages near Datta Khel town, about 45 kilometres west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal district, officials said.

In the first attack, four missiles hit a house used by militants in Dashgah village, killing six people.

“Two US drones fired four missiles and destroyed the house. Six militants were killed in this attack,” a Pakistani security official in Peshawar told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“All of them were militants attached to the Haqqani group,” one intelligence official said, referring to one of the strongest US foes in Afghanistan, whose leadership is based in North Waziristan.

A second intelligence official told AFP that initial reports suggested the dead were Uzbek militants from Afghanistan.

The second attack hit Inzarkas village, around two kilometres from the first, killing nine militants, officials said.

“Two missiles hit a vehicle, while another two hit a house, a total of nine militants were killed,” one intelligence official said.

“Latest reports said the US drone fired four missiles and targeted a vehicle and a house,” another intelligence official in Miranshah said.

A security official in Peshawar also confirmed the death toll in the second strike.

Pakistani officials have reported that at least 21 US drone strikes in September have killed around 120 people, the highest monthly toll for the attacks.

The overwhelming majority of the attacks have been carried out in North Waziristan, considered a bastion of Al-Qaeda-linked forces and Taliban commanders opposed to the US-led war in Afghanistan.