Pakistan drone strike kills eight

At least eight people were killed in a northwest Pakistan by a suspected US drone strike.

Officials sais that three missiles struck an Islamic seminary in Pakistan's north-western Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province killing two militants as well as a number of clerics and students.

Police named the two suspected Afghan militants killed as Mufti Hameedullah and Mufti Ahmad Jan, both thought to be members of the Haqqani network, which attacks targets and Western troops inside Afghanistan from its bases on Pakistan's side of the border.

Reports say that senior members of the Haqqani network often visit the seminary.

The attack is set to anger Pakistani officials, after the US had previously assured Pakistan that there would be no further drone strikes while the government tried to engage with the Taliban. It comes just three weeks after Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a drone attack.

The US has long demanded that Pakistan take action against the Haqqani network, which it blames for an attack on the US embassy in Kabul in 2011. However, the latest attack carried out further away from the remote tribal region and deeper inside Pakistani territory could further complicate relations between Washington and Islamabad.

Most of the previous drone attacks have occurred in the North Waziristan region, which is considered a militant stronghold while in contrast, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province is considered a "settled area" of the country and fully part of Pakistan.