Karachi: The first U.S. drone strike in Pakistan this year on Wednesday killed at least six militants in a northwest tribal district where pressure was building on Islamabad to react after a brazen attack on Karachi airport.
The strike came in a dramatic week that began with the all-night siege Monday of Karachi's Jinnah International in which 37 people including the 10 attackers were killed, leaving a tentative peace process in tatters and raising fears of a resurgent Taliban.
Those concerns were compounded by a follow-up attack Tuesday, also claimed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), in which gunmen fired upon an airport checkpoint but failed to inflict any casualties and later escaped, as Pakistani air force jets pounded suspected militant hideouts killing at least 25.
Wednesday's drone attack -- the first on Pakistani soil since December -- struck a vehicle and a compound in the Dargah Mandi village in North Waziristan, where almost 60,000 residents have fled since May fearing an imminent offensive by Pakistani troops.
An intelligence official in Miranshah, the region's main town some 10 kilometers (six miles) east of the village, said the missiles had struck a pick-up truck carrying some six militants and laden with explosives.
"Four of them were Uzbeks and two were Punjabi Taliban," he said, referring to militants from Pakistan's central Punjab province who have taken shelter in North Waziristan.
He added the militants had parked their pick-up truck against the outer wall of the compound -- both of which were destroyed and remain ablaze.
Another senior security official confirmed the strike and said authorities had intercepted a radio message talking about the drone attack.
"One of the militants was asking others to reach the site and search for any one injured in the strike and also to dig up the dead bodies," he said.
The Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan had earlier on Wednesday said that Uzbek militants had been part of the Karachi airport siege, which was confirmed by a senior TTP official who told Agence France Presse it was a "joint operation".
Security analyst Imtiaz Gul said IMU fighters had migrated to Pakistan's tribal areas after being forced to flee Afghanistan following the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.
"They have been under the protection of the Pakistani Taliban for some time. The Uzbeks are dependent on them for shelter and survival and are used as their foot soldiers in operations," he said.
Foreign militants, mostly Uzbeks and Chechens, are believed to have been involved in other major attacks in recent years, including on a Karachi naval base in 2011 and the military headquarters in 2009.
The TTP rose up against the state in 2007 following the siege of a radical mosque in Islamabad, in an insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.
Talks between intermediaries of the government and the TTP began earlier this year and led to a ceasefire in March that broke down a month later.
Some analysts have said the talks period in which it was relatively unmolested allowed the militant group to re-gather its strength.
The United States had offered its assistance in investigating the airport siege, though it is not yet clear whether Pakistan accepted the offer.
More than 2,000 people have been killed in drone attacks since August 2008 according to an AFP tally, with critics charging that the strikes cause many civilian casualties.
The last drone attack on Pakistani soil occurred on December 25, 2013, killing three suspected militants. According to media reports the strikes had been temporarily halted at the Pakistani government's request.
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