US assassination drone attacks boat in Pakistan

A US assassination drone has attacked a boat in a river in northwestern Pakistan, leaving a number of people dead, reports say.

On Saturday, an American unmanned aircraft fired two missiles on a boat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan’s local media reported.

The air raid is feared to have killed scores of people. However, Pakistani media have reported five fatalities.

The assault came after Sartaj Aziz, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s adviser on foreign affairs, told reporters in Islamabad that US drones “are violating Pakistan’s sovereignty and have been proved counter-productive in war against terror.”

Despite the Pakistani government’s repeated calls on Washington to end the drone attacks, the US continues its strikes on the country’s tribal regions.

Washington claims its drone strikes target militants, although casualty figures clearly indicate that Pakistani civilians are the main victims of the non-UN-sanctioned attacks.

The United Nations says the US-operated drone strikes in Pakistan and some other countries pose a growing challenge to the rule of international law.