PESHAWAR: Three suspected militants were killed in a US drone strike at a compound close to the Afghan border in North Waziristan Agency on Thursday, sources said.

According to an official of the political administration, two missiles were fired at the compound in the Gorwek area across the border near Zero Point.

Names of the deceased could not be ascertained but local sources claimed that both belonged to the Haqqani network.

Drone strikes in the region have surged in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a new Afghan policy in which Pakistan was accused of harbouring terrorists and offering “safe havens to the agents of chaos”.

On Jan 17, two suspected militants were killed and another was injured when US drones fired missiles at some locations on both sides of the Pak-Afghan border in Kurram Agency’s Badshah Kot area.

On Dec 26, two people were killed in a drone strike which targeted a vehicle. The strike occurred in the Mata Sangar area of Kurram. Later that month, a US drone fired a missile at a compound in the same area, but no casualty was reported.

Published in Dawn, February 9th, 2018