Islamabad: US drone aircraft fired missiles into a house in Pakistan's North Waziristan region on Friday, killing at least 17 suspected militants as Islamists protested against the killing of Osama Bin Laden.
Four drones took part in the first such attack since US special forces killed the Al Qaida leader on Monday not far from Islamabad, further straining ties between the strategic allies whose cooperation is needed to stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan.
Facing relentless suicide bombings by Islamic militants and struggling with a stagnant economy, Pakistan's leaders now face criticism from all sides on Bin Laden.
Both Islamists and ordinary Pakistanis are questioning how their leaders can just stand by while the United States sends commandos deep inside the country into a garrison city to eliminate the Al Qaida chief.
At the same time, suspicions that some Pakistani security forces might have known he was hiding in the country threaten to strain already uneasy ties with Washington.
The drone attack was the US's first since Osama Bin Laden's death in an American raid this week, Pakistani intelligence officials said.
North Waziristan is an Al Qaida and Taliban stronghold that has been subject to frequent missile attacks, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media.
The aircraft fired eight missiles along a dirt road in the Datta Khel area that hit a roadside restaurant, a house and a vehicle, said the officials.
At least 17 people were killed
At least 17 people were killed in the attack and another four were wounded, they said.
It was unclear whether intelligence gleaned from the US commando raid that killed Bin Laden on Monday played a part in the drone strike.
Many US officials have expressed skepticism of claims by Pakistani officials that they didn't know where bin Laden was hiding - even though he was found in a compound in the army town of Abbottabad, only about a two hours' drive from the capital.
The US refuses to publicly acknowledge the covert CIA drone program in Pakistan, but officials have said privately that the attacks have killed many senior Al Qaida and Taliban commanders.
Pakistani officials regularly condemn the attacks as violations of the country's sovereignty. But many are believed to privately support the programme, and some of the drones are suspected of taking off from inside Pakistan.
