Suicide bomber kills eight in Islamabad

By Robert Birsel

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Violence rocked Pakistan on Saturday, with a pilotless U.S. drone aircraft killing 13 people including militants in the northwest and a suicide bomber killing eight soldiers in the capital Islamabad.

Pakistan is crucial to U.S. efforts to stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan and U.S. President Barack Obama said the release of additional U.S. aid to the nuclear-armed country would depend on how it tackled terrorism.

With the Afghan insurgency intensifying, the United States began launching more drone strikes against al Qaeda and Taliban militants on the Pakistani side of the border last year.

Since then, more than 30 U.S. strikes have killed about 350 people, including mid-level al Qaeda members, according to reports from Pakistani officials, residents and militants.

Pakistan calls the strikes violations of its sovereignty and says the civilian casualties they inevitably cause inflame anti-U.S. sentiment, complicating its effort to fight militancy.

The attack on Saturday was in North Waziristan, a stronghold of al Qaeda and Taliban militants on the Afghan border about 35 km (20 miles) west of the region's main town of Miranshah.

"The missile hit a house where some 'guests' were staying," one intelligence agency official said, referring to foreign militants.

"We have information that 13 people were killed including some guests."