A suspected US. drone strike killed four militants Monday near Pakistan's northwestern border with Afghanistan, officials said. Two missiles fired from the drone targeted a militant hideout in the Shawal area of Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region, officials said. They did not elaborate. The two Pakistani officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose the information to journalists. Their account could not be independently corroborated as journalists are not allowed to work in tribal areas. American officials do not discuss the strikes, which anger many here over civilian casualties, as well as claims that they violate Pakistan's territorial sovereignty. The tribal region is home to both local and al-Qaida-linked foreign militants, including Afghan insurgents who focus on attacking American and its allied NATO forces in Afghanistan. The Pakistani army launched a major offensive in North Waziristan in mid-June. On Dec. 16, local Taliban militants responded by killing 150 people at an army-run school in Peshawar, 134 of them children. Pakistan's civilian and military leadership has promised since the school attack to take on all militants. Pakistan has used some group in the past as proxies in neighboring Afghanistan and India. http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/120679.aspx
