At least 10 militants were killed in a new US drone strike early Thursday in a northwest tribal district where pressure was building on Islamabad to react after a brazen attack on Karachi airport, officials said.
The second attack took place hours after an earlier drone strike killed at least six at the same site in North Waziristan tribal district, where militants had gathered to dig out the bodies and search for injured.
“Three US drones fired six missiles on militants who had gathered to dig the debris of a compound,” a local security official told AFP, adding missiles also hit two vehicles at the site.
Another security official confirmed the fresh US drone strike and told AFP drones were still flying in the sky.
Earlier a US drone fired two missiles which hit a vehicle and a compound in Dargah Mandi village in North Waziristan, around 10 kilometres (six miles) west of the main town of Miranshah in an area considered a stronghold for the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network.
The militants killed in the second strike have not yet been identified but officials said those killed in the first attack were Uzbeks and local Taliban.
The drone attacks came as Pakistani Taliban and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan said that Uzbek militants had been deployed in a brazen attack on Karachi airport earlier this week that killed 37 people including the 10 attackers.