News - Afghanistan

Six people were killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan early on Wednesday, Pakistani media reported.

A US drone fired two missiles targeting a house in which six people were killed and several others were wounded in Spalga area of North Waziristan, a Pakistani security official told media.

The dead bodies and the wounded ones have been shifted to hospital.

The house was completely destroyed.

After a Nato air strike on two Pakistani checkpoints near Afghan border that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on Nov 2011, relations between Pakistan and the US became more strained.

Pakistan has since blocked the Nato supply route which passes from Kheyber Pakhtunkhawa into Afghanistan and asked US officials to vacate Shamsi airbase which was used for US drone operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The United States resumed drone attacks in northwest Pakistan on January 10.

US officials recently said that eight of al-Qaeda's top 20 leaders were eliminated over the past year, mostly in US drone strikes.