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| A US Predator drone firing a Hellfire missile |
At least 28 people
have been killed and several others injured in the latest US
assassination drone strikes in northwestern tribal belt of Pakistan,
near the border with Afghanistan, Press TV reports.
The first attack took place on Friday when the unmanned aircraft targeted a house in North Waziristan region, claiming 9 lives.
At least 19 more civilians lost their lives in a second attack in the same volatile region.
Despite the Pakistani government’s repeated calls on Washington to end the drone attacks, the US government continues its strikes on the tribal regions of the country.
Washington claims its drone strikes target militants, although casualty figures clearly indicate that Pakistani civilians are the main victims of the non-UN-sanctioned attacks.
More than 150 people have died in drone attacks in Pakistan's northwest tribal regions since the beginning of this year.
The killing of Pakistani civilians, including women and children, in the US drone strikes has strained relations between the two allies, prompting Pakistani officials to send warnings to the US administration over the assaults.
On January 31, Obama publicly admitted to the use of the unmanned drones in Pakistan.
In response to questions about the use of the assassination drones by his administration in a chat with web users on Google+ and YouTube , he said “a lot of these strikes have been in the FATA” -- Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas, the official name for the country’s semi-autonomous tribal region, which encompasses North and South Waziristan.
The aerial attacks were initiated by former US President George W. Bush but have been escalated under President Barack Obama.
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