PESHAWAR – Overriding Islamabad’s objections, US has turned drone strikes on Pakistan virtually into a blitz hitting the border belt again Monday killing 15 suspected militants and injuring several others in Mir Ali area of North Waziristan.Sources said a US unmanned spy plane targeted a house firing four missiles in Mir Ali area of North Waziristan Agency in the early hours of Monday. The drone strike killed 15 people on the spot while several others sustained injuries.Local tribesman rushed to the site and contributed in the rescue activities.The local administration confirming the attack said identity of the killed was yet to be ascertained. Agencies add: The latest drone strike is the third in three days and the deadliest this year, officials said.It brought the death toll from drone attacks in Pakistan in the past three days to 27. Pilotless US drones hit targets in the South Waziristan tribal region on Saturday and Sunday.In the latest drone attack, the first missile struck the compound in Hesokhel before dawn, killing three militants, security officials said. A second missile then killed 12 more militants who had arrived at the scene, they added.The bodies of the suspected militants have not yet been identified, but there were unconfirmed reports that foreigners were among the dead.Local resident Gul Jaan Wazir told AFP that the dead bodies were quickly buried after being pulled out of the rubble. The drone strike destroyed the room in the mud and wooden house where they had all been sleeping, Wazir said.In the debris, local people found letterheads of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, wooden beds, blankets and mattresses.At the time of the attack, suspected militants were gathered to offer condolences to the brother of a militant commander killed during another drone strike Saturday.The brother was one of those who died in the Sunday morning strike.Meanwhile, Pakistan on Monday strongly condemned a jump in US drone strikes on its territory, using language that could increase tension between strategic allies already in dispute over military supply routes for Nato that Pakistan has closed.The foreign ministry called the attacks ‘illegal’ and said they violated the South Asian country’s sovereignty.“Pakistan’s position on drone attacks is very clear: Pakistan strongly condemns these attacks,” foreign ministry spokesman Moazzam Ahmad Khan said in a statement late Monday.“It is our considered view that the strategic disadvantages of such attacks far outweigh their tactical advantages, and are therefore, totally counterproductive,” Khan said.The drone attack looked set to inflame tensions with Islamabad ahead of a visit by a US assistant defence secretary, Peter Lavoy, on a mission to persuade Pakistan to end a six-month blockade on Nato supplies crossing into Afghanistan.There has been a dramatic increase in US drone strikes in Pakistan since a Nato summit in Chicago ended two weeks ago without a deal on the NATO supply lines.Eight drone strikes have been reported in the country since May 23, the same number as in the previous four months, and Monday’s was the deadliest since 18 Taliban were reported killed on November 16, 2011.The Monday attack followed closely on the heels of another drone strike Sunday that killed 10 suspected militants. Two intelligence officials said in that attack, four missiles were fired at targets in the village of Mana Raghzai in South Waziristan. Both Pakistan and US are at loggerheads over reopening NATO supply lines that Pakistan shut in fury on November 26 when US air strikes killed 24 Pakistani soldiers.Negotiations have snagged over costs, with American officials refusing to pay the thousands of dollars per container that Pakistan has reportedly demanded.Islamabad initially conditioned reopening the lines on an American apology for the deaths of the 24 soldiers and an end to drone strikes, but neither is likely to happen.Instead, Lavoy will fly into Islamabad this week in an attempt to break the deadlock, a government official told AFP.“Talks will focus on re-opening the NATO supply route, ways to promote border coordination and settle the issue of the Coalition Support Fund (CSF),” he said.

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