(Previous Incident Code: Ob326 )

At least three died when drones fired missiles on a house in North Waziristan. The strike hit around 11am; the house was destroyed. This was the second attack on Darga Mandi this month.

The News reported that four persons were killed when a US drone fired two missiles at a house in Darga Mandi in agency headquarters Miranshah, “destroying the house and leaving four persons dead”. According to the source, rescuers rushed to the scene but reportedly only began work after three drones had stopped hovering over the site. They pulled three dead and two injured from the rubble, the report continued. One of the wounded people died after the rescue. The wounded were reportedly taken to Miranshah hospital in a critical condition.

According to Fox News, three militants were killed in the attack while Frontier Post claimed a total death toll of five people and three injured. Dawn reported that the drone killed six militants in addition to three wounded. News Pakistan stressed that the identifies of the killed are not known.

The Long War Journal reported those killed in this strike were also Haqqani Network commanders, based on the location of the attack. However the Associated Press and Dawn reported the dead and wounded were from Punjab province. The paper said they “were associated with militant commander Qari Abbas” who was killed in an earlier drone strike on a car in the area. It was not clear in exactly which strike Qari Abbas was killed. A Qari Abbas reportedly escaped from a Pakistani prison along 44 other people on July 29 2013.

The attack came two days after Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif told the UN General Assembly drone strikes violate his country’s borders. He added civilian casualties from the strikes were ‘detrimental to our resolve and efforts to eliminate extremism and terrorism from Pakistan’.

On the day of the strike at least 40 were killed in an appalling car bomb attack in Peshawar’s ‘oldest bazaar’. Both the TTP and a lesser known group Ansarul Mujahidin condemned the attack. It was the third bombing in the city in a week after terrorists attacked a church, killing at least 80, and a bus, killing at least 20. Ansarul Mujaihidin reportedly claimed responsibility for the bus bombing.