US drone strike kills 8 German militants in Pakistan

At least eight foreign militants of German nationality were killed when a US drone struck a rebel compound in the restive North Waziristan tribal region of northwest Pakistan on Monday, sources said. The drone fired two missiles at the compound near a mosque three kilometres west of Mirali sub-division in North Waziristan.

Ten foreign militants had gathered in the compound for a meeting when the drone struck. Eight militants with German nationality were killed while two sustained critical injuries, sources said. The dead militants belonged to Jehad Al-Islami, they added. The sources said 90 per cent of foreign fighters in the tribal belt are members of this group. The group mostly operates in Afghanistan and its members visit the tribal belt to rest and regroup.

The killing of the militants with German nationality comes close on the heels of reports in the Western media that a group of jihadists from the German city of Hamburg is at the centre of an Al Qaeda plot to launch coordinated terror attacks on European cities. Western intelligence officials have been quoted by the media as saying that they learned about the plot after Ahmed Siddiqui, a German citizen of Afghan descent, was arrested in Afghanistan in July and taken to the US airbase at Bagram for questioning.

In early 2009, Siddiqui and 10 others left Hamburg for the Pakistan's tribal areas and joined a jihadist group fighting US and allied forces across the border in Afghanistan, German intelligence officials have said. The US reportedly stepped up drone attacks in North Waziristan last month after learning of the plot. The unmanned spy planes have carried out nearly two dozen attacks in the region since early September.