U.S. Drone Strike kills 20 militants

American-fired missiles killed 20 Islamist militants in northwest Pakistan last Wednesday.

According to Pakistani officials most of the members came from a powerful insurgent network fighting the U.S presence in Afghanistan.

14 of the dead were Afghan militants belonging to Haqqani network and six Pakistani militants supporting the group.

The officials said two missiles slammed into a house close to the town of Miran Snah in North Waziristan a militant hotspot that lies just across the border from Afghanistan.

Locals and rights groups say civilians are regularly killed in the drone strikes. There are never public investigations into those claims.

Washington began the missile program that targets al-Qaida and the Taliban on the Pakistani side of the border in 2005, but stepped up the pace in 2008 and again when the Obama administration came into office.

Over the last six months, ties between the two nations have grown increasingly strained, complicating U.S. goals for withdrawing from Afghanistan.



http:// (ABC News)