North Waziristan : US drones have killed at least 45 people mostly suspected militants in North and South waziristan regions adding the highest death toll ever with unmarked unmanned drone attacks.
The attacks started last night, when remotely piloted drones fired nine missiles into a militant compound and at a vehicle in North Waziristan, killing 25 suspected insurgents, local intelligence officials said.
Another strike hours later in South Waziristan killed five suspected militants.
Then this morning, a drone fired two missiles at another compound in North Waziristan.
"The missiles were fired as militants sitting in a vehicle were entering into a house used by them as a hideout," an intelligence official said, adding that 15 militants were killed in the strike. "The house is on fire."
There was no independent confirmation of the death tolls, and militants often dispute official death figures.
It was the second-largest death toll in a day in the unacknowledged US drone campaign against militants in Pakistan's northwest. In June 2009, about 70 suspected militants were killed in a drone attack in South Waziristan.
Most of the strikes have been concentrated in South and, especially, North Waziristan, mountainous tribal regions on the Afghan border that shelter militant groups friendly with Pakistan but who are attacking US and Nato forces in Afghanistan.
"Of course the number of casualties is very high and it will add to the already strained relationship," a senior Pakistani security official said
