James Lee Harper Jr.-USAF—AFP
Missiles targeted militant compounds in tribal area, according to security officials.
Two separate U.S. drone strikes killed at least seven militants in North Waziristan on Friday, Pakistani security officials said, the second such incident in a week.
The first strike targeted a Taliban compound in the Shawal area of the tribal district that borders Afghanistan and which has been used a hub by Al Qaeda and Taliban militants since the early 2000s. “A U.S. drone fired two missiles which hit a compound … killing four terrorists,” said a senior security official, speaking on condition of anonymity. Another security official claimed that the militants killed were all of Uzbek origin.
A second drone strike targeted a compound in the Kund area of North Waziristan, according to another official, killing at least three militants.
A drone strike on Dec. 20, also in North Waziristan, killed at least five militants, officials said. The area is generally off-limits to journalists, making it difficult to independently verify the number and identity of the dead.
The latest strikes came after Pakistan ramped up its anti-terror strategy in the wake of a Dec. 16 attack on an Army-run school in Peshawar, which killed 150 people, 134 of them children. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has announced the establishment of military courts for terror-related cases in order to accelerate trials, and the premier has also lifted a six-year moratorium on the death penalty, reinstating it for terrorism-related cases.