US drone strike kills six amid Pakistan's anti-Taliban offensive

Missiles from a U.S. drone slammed into a mud house and killed six suspected militants in Pakistan's rugged northwest on Thursday, officials said, as the Pakistani military said it had seized control of 80 percent of a key city from the Taliban.

The strike is the fourth in northwestern Pakistan since the U.S. resumed its campaign following a six-month hiatus, days before the Pakistani military launched an air campaign on June 15 to drive Taliban fighters out of the remote border region of North Waziristan.

Thursday's strike in the Datta Khel district also injured two militants, security officials said. The site of the strike was about 28 miles west of the regional capital, Miranshah, the main town in the lawless North Waziristan region near the Afghan border known to be a bastion of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. 

A local security official told the AFP news agency that Thursday's strike had killed four foreign fighters and two local cadres who had fled Miranshah before the launch of the offensive.

"The compound and a vehicle parked inside were completely destroyed and killed at least six militants," the official told AFP.

Speaking to reporters at a closed-door briefing on July 1, Pervez Rashid, the Pakistani information minister, said that U.S. drone strikes during the ongoing Pakistani military operation were "counterproductive." Maj. Gen. Asim Bajwa, the chief of the army's PR wing, said that drones "don’t help us."

Washington reportedly suspended its drone program in December to give Islamabad time to pursue a dialogue process with the Pakistani Tehreek-e-Taliban aimed at ending a seven-year insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.

But a bloody attack on Karachi airport on June 9 that left dozens dead sank the peace efforts and prompted the army offensive. 

Since the air operation began, 400 militants have been killed and 130 injured, the military's public relations wing said. Twenty-four soldiers have been killed and 19 injured. 

The extent of civilian casualties is unclear. North Waziristan has been sealed off from outsiders and there is no way to verify the military's figures.

Meanwhile, the army said it is now in control of 80 percent of strategically important Miranshah, which officers said had become a virtual supermarket for jihadist fighters wanting to equip themselves with guns and explosives.

"North Waziristan had transformed into a hub and safe haven for terrorists of all colors and creeds," Gen. Zafarullah Khan said during a trip to Miranshah. "But with the operation, 80 percent of Miranshah and the adjoining areas has been cleared."

The fighters targeted by the military, many of them ethnic Uzbeks and Chinese Uighurs as well as indigenous fighters, were completely on the defensive, Khan said.

"We have set up 250 military check posts to seal off their movements," he said. "We have found 11 IED [improvised explosive device] factories in Miranshah alone and 23,000 kilograms of explosive material. The militants' communications and operational capabilities have been greatly reduced."

However, reports from local residents suggest that many militants moved out of the area before it was secured.

The operation has also generated an exodus of internally displaced people from the remote, underdeveloped tribal area. According to government figures, more than 876,000 people have been displaced by the ongoing operation, after fleeing the Pakistani military’s aerial bombing campaign and Taliban reprisal attacks.

Al Jazeera and wire services