25 dead in US missile strike in Pakistan

At least 25 people have died after a US missile strike along the Afghan border with Pakistan, intelligence sources have revealed.

Ten missiles are thought to have been used.

The strike comes a day after Pakistan’s army chief denounced such attacks as counterproductive, amid especially tense US-Pakistan relations.

Officials said the attack targeted a home in the Spinwam village of North Waziristan tribal region.

They say some civilians were believed to be among the dead.

North Waziristan is considered a base for Taliban who target Western forces in Afghanistan.

Yesterday, Pakistani army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani said in a statement that missile strikes undermine the national effort against terrorism by undercutting public support.

The statement came hours after Admiral Mike Mullen, the chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, accused Pakistan’s military-run spy service of maintaining links with the Haqqani network, a powerful militant faction based in North Waziristan.

The US authorities want Pakistan to launch a military offensive in North Waziristan, but Pakistan has said it is too stretched fighting militant groups elsewhere in its north west.