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Published 03 Jun, 2012 04:33am

Drone strike kills ten in South Waziristan

PESHAWAR: US drone strikes targeting a militant house and vehicle in Pakistan's northwestern tribal area killed at least ten suspected militants Sunday including two key militant commanders, security officials said, the second attack in 24 hours.

Two US drones fired four missiles at a house belonging to a suspected militant commander Malang Khan in Wacha Dana town, 10 kilometres  west of Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan tribal district near the Afghan border, Pakistani security officials said.

At the time of the attack, suspected militants were gathered to offer condolences to the brother of a militant commander killed during an American unmanned drone attack on Saturday. The brother was one of those who died in the Sunday morning attack.

Officials said two of the dead were foreigners, and the rest were Pakistani where as one of the commanders killed in the attack was identified as Ghulam Khan belonging to the Maulvi Nazir group.

Sunday's attack in South Waziristan was the second in as many days and the seventh attack in two weeks which follows 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.

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