At least 8 killed as US drone fired two missiles in NWaziristan

A suspected US drone aircraft fired two missiles in North Waziristan on Friday, killing eight people, the second such attack this week. Eight militants were killed in a US missile strike in northwest Pakistan on Friday, officials said. The United States has carried out 45 attacks with its pilotless, missile-firing aircraft in northwest Pakistan this year as its forces in neighbouring Afghanistan have faced an intensifying Taliban insurgency. The latest strike, the second this week, targeted a fortified militant compound and a vehicle near the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan. "Eight people have been killed," an intelligence official in the region said. "All of them are militants," he said later, though adding their identities were not known. Pakistan officially objects to the US drone strikes, saying they violate its sovereignty. U.S. officials say the drone strikes are carried out under an agreement with Islamabad that allows Pakistani leaders to decry the attacks in public. There were 32 such strikes last year, according to a Reuters tally of reports from Pakistani security agents, government officials and residents.