Drone attacks kill 22, school spared

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Drone attacks have killed at least 22 people in the past 24 hours in Pakistan's Khyber tribal district, officials said.

The attacks in Tirah targeted militants in the villages of Speen Drang and Shandana, the BBC reported.

An extremist headquarters in the tribal belt has been spared because it is an Islamic religious school, U.S. officials said.

Military officials said seven pro-Taliban militants loyal to the Lashkar-e-Islam group were killed in a strike Thursday, and at least 12 more were killed in two attacks Friday.

There have been more than 100 attacks by pilotless U.S. aircraft in 2010, most of them in the tribal region of North Waziristan.

The school on the edge of Miram Shah has long been a nerve center for the so-called Haqqani network, coordinating attacks on U.S. forces in Afghanistan, officials told the Washington Post.

But the CIA has held back from striking it because targeting a religious compound would set off a violent backlash. Officially, U.S. ground forces cannot operate inside Pakistan, but U.S. officials said the Pakistani military has failed to clear militants from the school.

Pakistan insists it has raided the madrassa several times and found no evidence of militant activity, but American officials say they're not convinced Pakistan is doing all it can about militants living there.

U.S. intelligence has called Pakistan's reluctance to uproot militant groups a major obstacle to progress in the war.

The network was founded by Jalaludin Haqqani, a mujahedin leader supported by the CIA against the Soviets in the 1980s. It is suspected of harboring al-Qaida in the border region, and U.S. officials say they believe it is being protected by Pakistani intelligence.