U.S. drone attack kills five in Pakistan's tribal area

Four missiles fired by a suspected U.S. drone aircraft on Friday night killed at least five people in northwest Pakistan's tribal area bordering Afghanistan, local TV channels reported Saturday.

The reports said the unmanned attack targeted a compound in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan tribal agency. Sources said all those killed in the strike were militants.

North and South Waziristan are believed to be the sanctuaries for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. There have been about a dozen such strikes this year alone.

The U.S. has stepped up drone attacks in tribal areas but the latest came after a silence of two weeks.

More than 700 people have died in nearly 80 drone strikes since August 2008. A surge in such strikes has been ordered by U.S. President Barack Obama. Pakistan has publicly criticized drone attacks, saying they fuel support for militants, but observers said the authorities privately condone the strikes. A poll conducted by Gallup Pakistan for Al-Jazeera in July 2009 found that only nine percent of Pakistanis supported the drone strikes.

The poll was based on face-to-face interviews with more than 2,500 Pakistanis throughout the country.

Xinhua