(Previous Incident Code: Ob370 )

CIA drones killed five or six people in a strike at around 11pm local time. The attack destroyed part of a house and reportedly killed up to three foreigners believed to be Uzbeks.

Two Pakistani intelligence officials said the targeted house belonged to fighters loyal to an Afghan warlord and was used by Uzbeks. A local tribesman in the Datta Khel area told The News: “The drone fired two missiles at a house believed to be in the use of foreign militants. Six people were killed on the spot and four others suffered injuries.”

There were conflicting accounts of exactly where the strike hit – reports placed the attack in two adjacent areas. Some sources said it was in the Shawal area – a region of thick woodland and steep valleys. It is apparently the last refuge of armed groups in North Waziristan after Pakistan’s ongoing, 14-month long offensive in the tribal area. The Pakistan military moved into the Shawal to clear it of armed groups two weeks before this strike. Other sources said the strike hit in the Datta Khel sub-division of North Waziristan – an area already said to have been cleared of fighters by the Pakistan military.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement repeating its condemnation of the drone strikes as violations of territorial sovereignty and international law. It said the attack hit “around 2.5km from the Pakistan-Afghanistan border” and called “for cessation of such strikes”.