Islamabad: The first US drone attack in 2015 in Pakistan killed eight suspected militants and injured two on Sunday in North Waziristan’s tribal area, security sources said.
The strike took place in Shawal valley of North Waziristan, one of the seven tribal districts along the Afghan border.
It targeted a compound belonging to an Uzbek commander of the Taliban-allied Hafiz Gul Bahadur militant group, the sources said.
A day before the drone strike, Pakistani air strikes killed 31 militants in Tirah valley of the Khyber Agence trial region, the military said.
The air strikes late Saturday in the Tirah valley destroyed four militant hideouts and a suicide bomber training centre, said a military statement. Several would-be suicide bombers were among the dead, it said.
The military says the operation in Khyber is aimed at militants who have fled a massive offensive in the neighbouring North Waziristan region that was launched on June 15 last year.
According to the military, the ongoing six-month offensive in the tribal region has resulted in the killing of more than 2,000 militants.
The government and the military are now in the process of implementing a comprehensive National Action Plan to rid the country of terrorism, approved with consensus by all parliamentary parties on Friday.
Besides special military courts for speedy trial of hard-core terrorists, the action plan envisages nationwide crackdown on militant outfits and elements engaged in promoting militancy and helping terrorists.
The plan was evolved following the December 16 attack by Taliban on an army-run public school in Pehawar, in which 150 people, 135 of them children, were killed.
