8 killed in U.S. drone strike in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- At least eight suspected militants were killed when two missiles were fired by U.S. drones in Pakistan's northwest tribal area of North Waziristan on Friday night, reported local Urdu TV channel Waqt.

According to the local media reports, the strike took place at about 9:30 p.m. local time in the Mir Ali area of Miranshah, a main town in North Waziristan, one of the seven tribal areas in northwest Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan.

A house suspected of being a militant's hideout and a vehicle were targeted in the strike, said the Waqt report.

Details about the identities of the killed suspected militants are not immediately available. Many important militant leaders were killed in such U.S. drone strikes in the past.

Friday's U.S. drone strike is the 52nd of its kind (counted on daily basis) in Pakistan in 2011. To date, a total of 463 people, most of them believed to be suspected militants, have reportedly been killed in such strikes since this year.

The strike came shortly after the Pakistani leadership including the prime minister and Army chief expressed on Friday discontent with the recent remarks made by a top U.S. military official's accusation that Pakistan's secret agency ISI is supporting the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani network in Afghanistan.

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