[Dawn] Missiles from a US drone slammed into a car killing three militants Friday, the second such strike in two days in Pakistan's tribal region of North Waziristan, security officials said. The northwest, rife with militant networks, has been the focus of a hail of bombings in the past month by US spy planes, as Washington targets militant groups it says Pakistan is struggling to tackle.The morning attack by a drone aircraft struck a vehicle carrying suspected militants in Ghundikala village, 15 kilometres east of Miramshah, the main town of North Waziristan, close to the Afghan border. "A US drone fired two missiles, targeting a vehicle and killing three militants," a senior security official in the area told AFP. "The identity of militants is not known yet. It is also not clear whether any high value target was present in the area when the attack took place." Another security official confirmed the strike and the casualties.
"We saw a vehicle engulfed in flames after the missile strike," a local tribesman in the area told AFP by phone on condition of anonymity. "It was difficult to go close to the vehicle as it was surrounded by militants, who later removed dead bodies from the wreckage." It was not clear which group was targeted.
North Waziristan is rife with Taliban militants, Al-Qaeda fighters and members of the powerful Haqqani network, which is known for staging attacks on foreign troops in Afghanistan.
The bombing comes the morning after a US drone attack killed four militants in Machikhel village, about 25 kilometres east of Miramshah, after which officials suggested some of the dead were Al-Qaeda operatives.
Seven US missile strikes in the same area of North Waziristan have killed 44 people in the past month, although the identities of those killed are hard to verify as the deaths are deep in Taliban-controlled territory.
More than 70 US drone missile strikes have killed at least 662 people in Pakistan since August 2008. The United States does not confirm drone attacks, but its military is the only force that deploys drones in the region.