Suspected US missile strike kills three foreign militants

At least three foreign militants have been killed by a suspected American drone strike in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, Pakistani intelligence officials said.

The suspected drone fired two missiles at a home in northwestern Pakistani village of Qutab Khel in North Waziristan.

Two intelligence officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said that initial investigations suggest that the slain men were Arabs.

The US authorities often target Taliban, al-Qaida and their Pakistani supporters in the country's tribal regions.

The American drone program is extremely unpopular in Pakistan because it is perceived as killing innocent civilians, which the US denies. Many in Pakistan also consider it an affront to their sovereignty but the US has shown no indication it is willing to halt the program.

Angered over the strikes, supporters from cricket star-turned politician Imran Khan's Tehreek-e-Insaf party in the northwest have been urging the government to force the US to end drone attacks and block NATO supplies across the country.

Drone strikes have been a source of tension between Islamabad and Washington.

Pakistan's Foreign Ministry condemned the latest strike in a statement Thursday, saying such attacks were a violation of Pakistan's sovereignty and territorial integrity. "There is an across-the-board consensus in Pakistan that these drone strikes must end," it said.

"Such strikes also set dangerous precedents in the inter-state relations," it said, adding the strikes had a negative impact on the government's efforts to bring peace and stability in Pakistan and the region.