Islamabad, November 12 (RHC)-- At least four people have been killed in a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's northwestern tribal region near the Afghan border.

Pakistani security officials said on Tuesday that four militants were killed in the town of Datta Khel in North Waziristan following the strike that reportedly targeted a building and a vehicle. Pakistan’s government condemned the attack, saying the continuation of U.S. air-strikes is unnecessary because the army has cleared over 80 percent of the region from militants.

Earlier in the day, the Pakistani army carried out an airstrike in country’s northwestern Khyber tribal region, killing 13 militants.

Figures released by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism show that only 84 people out of the 2,379 killed in U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan from June 2004 to October 2014, were identified as al-Qaeda militants.

These figures are in clear contradiction with claims made by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry last May when he said: “The only people we fire at are confirmed terror targets, at the highest level. We don’t just fire a drone at somebody we think is a terrorist.”

The U.S. claims its drone attacks target militants, but local officials and witnesses maintain that civilians have been the main victims of the attacks over the past few years.