WANA: A US drone killed six suspected militants in South Waziristan tribal region on Thursday morning.

According to a security official, the drone fired two missiles at the house of a local tribesman, Ashraf Wazir, near a public school in Nargasi village in Azam Warsak, near the Afghan border.

Four of the six militants killed were foreigners, two of Saudi Arabian origin and one each from Yemen and Sudan, the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. They were identified as Umer and Amadi (Saudi Arabia), Abduddin (Sudan) and Adil (Yemen).

The two other local militants could not be identified.

According to local people, the Saudi origin militants were born in Afghanistan and they migrated to South Waziristan about 12 years ago after their parents were killed during the Afghan war.

This was the 16th drone strike this year. Two of them took place in South Waziristan and 14 in North Waziristan where the army launched Zarb-i-Azb operation in June.

Some residents of Miramshah, once a stronghold of militants, and security officials have said that most of the local and foreign terrorists had taken refuge in densely forested and mountainous areas of Shawal.

A foreign news agency quoted security officials as saying that an important leader of the Haqqani network was among those killed in the US drone strike. “Abdullah Haqqani was responsible for sending suicide bombers to Afghanistan,” a security official said.

Another official in the neighbouring garrison town of Bannu confirmed the killing of Abdullah.

A source in a militant group said a vehicle loaded with arms and ammunition was destroyed in the attack.

CONDEMNATION: Pakistan condemned the drone strike.

At a weekly media briefing in Islamabad, Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said: “The government of Pakistan is itself taking decisive action against terrorist elements and, therefore, believes that such strikes are unnecessary and need to be stopped.”

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2014