NNA - A U.S. drone killed six people in northwest Pakistan Thursday in only the second such strike outside the country's lawless tribal districts, threatening to inflame tensions between Washington and Islamabad, AFP reported.



The missile attack targeted a religious seminary that security officials said belonged to the Haqqani network -- blamed for some of the deadliest attacks in neighboring Afghanistan -- in the Hangu district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.



Earlier this month the network's chief financier Nasirudddin Haqqani was gunned down in mysterious circumstances in a village on the edge of Islamabad.



Thursday's drone strike was the first in the country since Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a similar attack in the North Waziristan tribal district on November 1.



That attack prompted a furious response from Pakistan, with the interior minister accusing Washington of sabotaging fledgling peace efforts with the Taliban and opposition parties calling for a blockade of NATO supply lines to Afghanistan.



"The drone strike targeting the seminary killed six people," police official Farid Khan told Agence France PResse.



Two local security officials identified two of the dead as Mufti Ahmad Jan and Mufti Hameedullah and said they were both members of the Haqqani network.



"The seminary belonged to one Qari Noor Muhammad, a previously unknown figure. It was not clear if he was present in the seminary at the time of attack", an official said.


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