At least twenty people have been killed in the latest US missile strike in tribal regions in northwestern Pakistan, local security officials confirm.
According to two Pakistani intelligence officials on Sunday, a US drone fired two missiles that hit the house of local tribesman Awal Gul in Enzer Kasa village of the Datta Khel area in North Waziristan, a tribal region near the Afghan border.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.
A total of 300 people have so far lost their lives in 42 drone attacks in Pakistan's tribal belt this year.
Washington claims that the raids target militants in Pakistan, but hundreds of civilians have fallen victim to the US drone attacks since 2008.
Islamabad has repeatedly condemned the strikes, saying they threaten the country's sovereignty and fuel public anger.
Despite the Pakistani people and government's opposition to the US drone strikes, the Pentagon Thursday authorized the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to target a wider range of targets in Pakistan with its drone-guided missiles.
The US drone strikes began to expand under former US president George W. Bush and have further increased under President Barack Obama.
While at least eight civilians have been killed or wounded as US forces clashed with Taliban militants in the troubled western Afghanistan, witnesses say.
According to local residents, the fatal incident took place on Saturday night in Herat province, a Press TV correspondent reported. Provincial officials, however, say only three people were wounded in the violence.
The rising number of civilian casualties has become a major problem in Afghanistan.
Over 170 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan since the start of 2010 -- a 33 percent rise compared to the same period last year.
A report by the UN says over 2,400 civilians were killed in Afghanistan in 2009, the largest number of civilian casualties since the 2001 US-led invasion.
The US-led the invasion of Afghanistan was launched with the official objective of curbing militancy and bringing peace and stability to the country. Nine years on, however, Afghanistan remains unstable and civilians continue to pay the price.
[Source: PressTV]
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