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Pakistanis continue anti-US protest

People in Pakistan have rallied in the streets of the capital Islamabad for a second day to protest against unauthorized US drone attacks on the country’s soil.

Hundreds of people demonstrated on Friday morning, a Press TV correspondent reported.

The daily attacks, which were launched by former US President George W. Bush, have escalated under the administration of the incumbent President Barack Obama.

The White House frequently carries out such attacks on Pakistan’s tribal areas, claiming the airstrikes target militants.

However, most of the non-UN-sanctioned drone strikes result in civilian casualties.

The US drone strikes have killed 2,000 people in northwest Pakistan since 2004. More than 700 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in US drone attacks since 2009.

A recent report, drawing on official figures, suggests that military operations, US drone strikes, and retaliatory violence by militants have claimed more than 10,000 lives in Pakistan.

The Pakistani government has publicly criticized the attacks, urging Washington to pay compensations to the victims’ families and others that suffered losses in such attacks.

“We have repeatedly said the drone attacks are counterproductive,” Pakistan’s Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said.

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