3 Jun 2012

US drone strikes kill five in Pakistan

7:04 pm on 3 June 2012

United States drone strikes targeting a militant compound in Pakistan's northwestern tribal area have killed at least five insurgents in the second such attack in 24 hours.

Two US drones fired four missiles on Sunday at a house belonging to a militant commander, west of Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border.

There has been a surge in drone strikes in Pakistan since a NATO conference on Afghanistan in Chicago last month.

Washington considers Pakistan's semi-autonomous northwestern tribal belt the main hub of Taliban and al-Qaeda militants plotting attacks on the West and in Afghanistan.