Drone Strike Kills German Fighters

Five Germans were amongst the eight militants killed in a suspected US drone attack in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region on Monday, according to Pakistani officials.

They also said that that the militants killed in the strike on Mir Ali town were associated with Jihad Islami organization and the German nationals were of Turkish descent.

Details of the strike are yet to be verified independently and the German and US governments haven’t commented on the incident.

Al Jazeera’s correspondent Kamal Haider, who is based in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, said that the strike also left at least three women dead.  Some reports suggested that children died too, Haider said.  

"What is raising the alarm bells here is that despite the fact that there may be some evidence to suggest that these people are indeed militants, Germans in this case ... there is, of course, this apprehension that most of the time these strikes are taking place not caring about the civilian casualties”.

Matthias Gebauer, who is the chief reporter for German newspaper Der Spiegel, said that the news of German nationals killed in the drone attack "did not come as a big surprise".

"Because we know that about a couple of dozen German Islamists went from Germany to the Pakistani tribal belt, especially to Mir Ali", he said.

Pakistan’s northwestern tribal belt is considered by the West a global hub for fighters. Reports suggest that Al-Qaeda prizes such foreign recruits because of their Western passports.

Monday’s strike was carried out a day after the UK and the US warned of the increased danger of attacks on European cities.