US drones strike North Waziristan killing 12 militants

Striking at Pakistan's lawless North Waziristan region for the third time in two days, US drones hit a terrorist hideout in Dattakhel village killing 12 militants.

The new attacks came close on the heels of two big drone strikes yesterday when unmanned predators carpeted the same area, suspected by the Americans to be the stronghold of Afghan warlord Sirajuddin and his Haqqani network.

The predators blasted the area with eight to ten hellfire missiles taking a heavy toll of 18 militants.

"The US drones in fresh attacks today fired four to six missiles targeting a militant hideout. There are reports of upto 12 militants being killed and five injured," local officials told TV channels.

Pakistan Army is undertaking a major military campaign to wipe out homegrown Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants in North Waziristan. Thirty-thousands troops backed by tanks, helicopter gunships and fighter jets are on a massive headhunt for Taliban and foreign militants. The step up in drone attacks comes amidst reports that the White House recently authorised expansion of Predator strikes.

Since August 2008, US has launched at least 66 such strikes killing more than 630 militants including TTP chief Baitullah Mehsud and some top al Qaeda authorities.

Recently, the Obama administration has been putting pressure on the Pakistan government and the Army to expand its operation to marginalise the Haqqani network, which according to intelligence estimate has 8,000 to 12,000 fighters, most of them deployed against US forces in Afghanistan.