02 January,2009 02:16 PM IST | | PTI
At least four persons were killed when a suspected US drone aircraft fired two missiles at a school in Pakistan's troubled south Waziristan tribal region on Friday, local tribesmen said.
The missiles hit a middle school at Sultana village in south Waziristan at 10 am, they said. Witnesses said tribesmen rushed to the site of the attack and pulled bodies out of the rubble. The school building was destroyed in the attack, they said.
This was the second US missile strike in the region since yesterday. Five militants were killed when a US drone fired three missiles at a vehicle near Wana, the main town of south Waziristan.
US drone aircraft regularly launch missile strikes against targets in north and south Waziristan. There has been a sharp increase in such operations against suspected Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants since August last year.
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The two latest strikes hit an area controlled by Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. Pakistani officials say the US carried out around 50 missile strikes last year, killing hundreds of people, a majority of them civilians.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi yesterday asked the US to stop the missile strikes as they are counter-productive. Pakistan has also described such attacks as a violation of its sovereignty.
The US claims that the missile attacks are aimed at destroying hideouts of suspected militants that are used to plan attacks on US-led forces in Afghanistan.
