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Drone strike kills 15 in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Despite Pakistan cutting off one supply route to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan in protest against airspace violation, drone attacks on Pakistani tribal areas continued on Saturday, killing at least 15 alleged terrorists in North Waziristan.

Agency reports suggest the U.S. intelligence used the tactic of terrorists to wreck maximum damage. After the first round of drone attacks on a suspected hideout in Datta Khel, the Predators returned when people were trying to pull out the dead and injured from the rubble of the first attack.

On Friday, ISAF Commander David Petraeus is reported to have telephoned Pakistan's Chief of Army Staff Ashfaq Parvez Kayani to express regret for the NATO attack on a Frontier Corps (F.C.) outpost which killed three personnel and injured three others. He also assured Pakistan that the U. S. would share intelligence.

The government, meanwhile, is coming under increased criticism for its perceived inaction on violations of Pakistan's territorial integrity along its western border. Though the Foreign Office issued a de marche on Monday after the first round of intrusions by NATO aircraft and asked its Ambassador in Brussels on Thursday to register yet another protest after FC personnel were killed, some security analysts feel Islamabad's dual policy — quiet acceptance of the unmanned drone attacks but anger at violation of airspace by manned aircraft — was to blame for the ineffectiveness of such diplomatic protests.

Also, questions are being asked why Pakistan is not doing more in retaliation of violation of airspace along its border with Afghanistan when any such development on its eastern border with India evokes a prompt response.

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