TWO successive US drone strikes killed eight militants in northwest Pakistan on Tuesday in the remote tribal belt near the Afghan border, security officials said.In the first attack a US drone overnight fired two missiles killing five suspected Taliban in the lawless region of South Waziristan, a Taliban bolthole where Washington says Islamist fighters are hiding out and planning attacks on Western troops stationed in neighbouring Afghanistan.
"A missile from a US drone fired on a compound of local Taliban commander Irfan Mehsud and killed five militants and injured six," said a security official in the area, who declined to be named. A local administration official confirmed the toll.
| The Mehsuds have been dropping like flies lately ... |
The security official said the spy plane fired two missiles on the compound, adding that reports suggested three of the dead could be Uzbeks.
"The death toll may rise," he said. "The compound is completely destroyed and militants have surrounded the area."
An intelligence official, who also refused to be named, said militants were pulling their dead from the debris.
| Just the right time for a follow-on missile ... |
In the second attack a US drone targeted a Taliban compound linked to the Haqqani network in North Waziristan, a Pakistani official said, an area where Washington says the militants and al-Qaeda fighters are hiding out and planning attacks on Western troops stationed in Afghanistan.
"The missile hit a house of an Afghan militant linked with Haqqani, three militants were confirmed dead," a security official said by telephone.
Intelligence officials in the area confirmed the attack and the death toll, saying that five militants were also wounded.
"The target was a house in Dande Darpakel on the outskirts of Miranshah," the official said.