ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Government was making some progress winning hearts and minds in North Waziristan, a stronghold of its tenacious militant enemies - from al-Qaeda to the Taliban. It upgraded a school and built a new road, lifting the spirits of people like shepherd Resham Khan, a victim of decades of neglect of the forbidding mountain region in the northwest. Then, last June, 15 members of his extended family were blown to pieces during a funeral procession in his village. Khan, who was nearby and heard the explosion, alleges the mourners were targeted by pilotless US drone aircraft missiles. He stares into the distance blankly when asked to describe that day. His brother, Mulaqat, has to recount the tragedy because he is still too traumatised, to speak at length. He sits by Khans side in a psychiatric section of an Islamabad hospital where he is being treated with antidepressant and anti-psychotic medicines. Pakistan needs to win support in key battlegrounds like North Waziristan along the Afghan border, a global hub for militants determined to destabilise the government and help defeat US-led Nato forces in Afghanistan. But the strikes undermine public support. If you expect them to love the government, you would be foolish to think so, said Khans psychiatrist, Rizwan Taj, who says his patient has made great progress since he was brought to the hospital on a stretcher, in a stupor, four weeks ago. His grief reflects the price ordinary Pakistanis are paying for the relentless US drone campaign on the Afghan border, which has been stepped up under the Obama administration as it prepares to draw down troops in the 10-year war in Afghanistan. The air raids also go to the heart of the resentment that Pakistanis feel against the United States, seeing them as an assault on the nations sovereignty. Drone strikes have been a major source of friction between the United States and Pakistan. Tensions between the allies have heightened further over the case of Raymond Davis, a US consular employee who shot dead two Pakistanis last month in Lahore. The United States still doesnt acknowledge the drone campaign, so American officials decline to confirm specific incidents, underscoring the sensitivities on ties with Pakistan. But they do say the attacks are highly effective. Drone strikes have killed high-value al Qaeda and Taliban figures. But these victories for Washington and Islamabad often cause devastation for locals like Khan. Shortly after the strike, the 52-year-old father of six sunk into a deep depression and lost alarming amounts of weight. Then he started imagining things. He told relatives that they should not eat or drink anything because the worlds food and water supplies would soon run out. His brother decided to admit him to hospital when Resham, a pious Muslim, did the unthinkable. On the 20th of September he stopped praying. He used to pray five times a day. But after that he totally stopped, said Mulaqat, looking sadly at his brother, who was sporting a henna beard and wearing old plastic sandals. I asked him to offer prayers and he said 'I cant. I dont have the energy. The New American Foundation, which tracks drone strikes, estimates they have killed a total of 2,189 people from 2004 through January of this year. Of those, 1,754 were militants. Only 16 percent of residents of the tribal areas think the strikes accurately target militants, 48 percent believe they largely kill civilians and another 33 percent feel they kill both, said a study by the think tank. People in Khans village staged dozens of protests urging the government to halt the drone strikes and provide compensation for deaths and property damage, said the brother. The government promised to do so, but we dont believe their promises, he said.