US missile strike kills five in Fata; blast in Dera Ismail Khan leaves nine dead

A bomb blast in a market in the north-western town of Dera Ismail Khan killed nine people and wounded 38, on Sunday, the latest in a wave of attacks since the army launched an offensive against militants, a government official said. "The initial probe suggests that the device was planted in a push-cart parked in the middle of the market," Syed Mohsin Shah, the top government official in the city, told Reuters.
Meanwhile, a suspected US missile strike killed at least five people in a tribal region where top Taliban commander is based, intelligence officials said, breaking a lull in such attacks and posing a test for growing anti-Taliban sentiment in the country.The strike came as violence raged elsewhere in the volatile north-west regions bordering Afghanistan: a bombing at a market killed at least eight people, while officials said ongoing clashes between the Taliban and security forces killed at least 20 militants in a tribal region supposedly cleared of insurgents months ago.
US missile strikes could undermine that sentiment because they are deeply unpopular among Pakistanis. The government has publicly protested such strikes, fired by unmanned drone aircraft, saying they violate the country's sovereignty, even though many analysts suspect the two countries have struck a secret deal to facilitate the attacks.
The latest strike occurred in South Waziristan, hitting three vehicles in an area not far from Makeen, a village considered a stronghold of Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud. Two intelligence officials confirmed the attack on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to media. The last missile strike was in mid-May.