Pakistan lodges protest against US drone strikes

Pakistan lodged protest with the U.S. embassy in Islamabad on Thursday against two recent U.S. drone strikes in the country's northwest tribal regions. "A protest has been lodged by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad against drone strikes inside Pakistani territory on 10 and 11 October 2012," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The U.S. Embassy was informed that drone strikes on Pakistani territory were a clear violation of International Law and Pakistan' s sovereignty, the statement said. "These attacks were unacceptable to Pakistan," it added. An American unmanned aircraft Thursday fired four missiles at a religious school in Orakzai, killing 16 suspected militants, local media said. Official sources said that the attack was aimed at the compound of Maulana Shakirullah, who is the commander of the Hafiz Gul Bahadur group of the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The militant wing led by Shakirullah has been accused by the U. S. of linking with the Haqqani network and Al-Qaeda and being involved in cross-border attacks on Afghanistan, sources added. On Wednesday, a U.S. drone killed at least five suspected militants in North Waziristan.