US drone strike kills three militants in tribal area

peshawar — A US drone killed three suspected militants in an attack on a compound in Pakistan’s tribal region on Friday, officials said, in the first strike since President Donald Trump vowed to crack down on the country.

Pakistani officials said the strike took place in remote Ghuz Ghari village in Kurram agency, close to the Afghan border where at least five fighters from the Afghan Taleban had gathered.

“The US drone fired two missiles, at least three fighters from the Afghan Taleban have been killed and two wounded,” a senior government official in Kurram said. The identities of those killed and wounded remained unclear but an intelligence official in Kurram said one of the dead belonged to the Haqqani network.

Two other mid-level government officials confirmed the strike and casualties and said that the compound was completely destroyed in the attack. The use of US drones has dwindled dramatically in recent years in Pakistan, where the strikes have proven extremely controversial with the public and rights groups over human rights and sovereignty concerns.

The US is believed to have ordered at least two other drone attacks this year. The first US strike under the Trump administration killed two men riding a motorbike in Kurram in March, while the second suspected attack happened in late April in North Waziristan, one of seven tribal districts stretching along the Afghan border. In a major speech outlining US policy on Afghanistan last month, Trump lambasted Pakistan for sheltering “agents of chaos” and suggested ties with Islamabad would be adjusted immediately. —