At least 5 killed in drone strike on Pakistan's Independence Day

MIR ALI: Five people were killed and four others were injured in a US drone attack on a house at Essori village in Mir Ali subdivision of Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region on Saturday night.
Tribal sources in Mir Ali said most of the villagers were offering Taraveeh prayers in the mosques when the pilotless, CIA-operated plane struck a house. Many tribesmen in the village came out of the mosques in despair when they heard the blast triggered by two missiles fired by the drone.
According to villagers, five bodies were retrieved from the rubble of the house, which collapsed in the attack. The five bodies, they added, were mutilated beyond recognition. The villagers also said that four other people, who sustained injuries, were recovered from the debris and shifted to a local hospital.
There was no credible information about the identity of those killed in the strike, though the villagers in Essori claimed that all of them were local tribesmen.
Villagers said the drones had disappeared following the onset of the monsoon rains that triggered devastating floods in North Waziristan and rest of the country. “We thought Americans have been moved by the destruction caused by the floods in Pakistan and stopped sending their spy planes to kill us,” remarked Haji Mohammad Nasir, a villager.
Haji Nasir said the planes, however, appeared again in the sky when the weather became clear on Saturday and started firing missiles.
The attack took place on the 63rd Independence Day of Pakistan.
Meanwhile, some unconfirmed reports claimed 12 people were killed in the drone attack.