US drone strikes in Waziristan, Pakistan

US drone aircraft struck twice in Pakistan’s unruly tribal regions along the border with Afghanistan on Tuesday, killing 15 suspected militants, including two senior commanders of the Pakistani Taliban, security and intelligence officials said. In the first strike, Pakistani warlord Maulvi Nazir’s loyalists, two of them commanders, were attacked in the remote Drey Nishtar area of South Waziristan along the Afghan border, part of the semi-autonomous northwestern tribal belt that Washington considers a global hub of Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants. A total of eight suspected militants were killed in the attack. The targeted militants were supporting the Taliban in Afghanistan but not hostile to Pakistani authorities, local officials said. Pakistani warlord Maulvi Nazir s loyalists, two of them commanders, were attacked in the remote Drey Nishtar area in the first strike. "The target of the attack was fighters of commander Maulvi Nazir. A total of eight fighters were killed in this attack," one Pakistani official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. Security officials said US drones fired up to four missiles into a vehicle travelling through the far-flung and mountainous area. "Informers told us that two senior commanders of Maulvi Nazir were among the dead. Both commanders, Amir Hamza and Shamsullah, were considered important for Nazir," the Pakistani official added. Another seven people were killed in a second US drone strike in Sara Khawra area near Shawal in South Waziristan.