US drone strikes kill over dozen in Pakistan, Afghanistan

More than a dozen people have been killed and several others severely injured in separate strikes by US killer drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The highest casualties have been reported in Pakistan where 10 people were killed in the US drone strike on Wednesday.

Local intelligence sources say the attack took place in the volatile Nazyan area of Khyber Agency close to the border with Afghanistan.

Local Pakistani officials have confirmed the attack, saying those killed in the operation were Taliban militants.

Meanwhile, another airstrike by the foreign forces’ unmanned aircraft in Afghanistan left at least four people dead.

Afghan officials say the casualties in the attack in the western Farah Province were Taliban militants. However, the militant group has not commented on the deaths yet.

US drone strikes have escalated significantly over the past years, fueling anti-American sentiments in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

The aerial attacks, initiated by former US president, George W. Bush, have escalated under President Barack Obama. Obama has defended the use of the controversial drones as “self-defense.”

Philip Alston, UN special envoy on extrajudicial killings, said in a report in late October 2010 that the US drone attacks were undermining the rules designed to protect the right of life.

Alston also said he fears that the drone killings by the US Central Intelligence Agency could develop a “Playstation” mentality.

Several international bodies and human rights organizations have already identified the US as the world’s number one user of “targeted killings” largely due to its drone attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan.