Pakistan is condemning the United States drone attack that killed 17 people in a suspected militant compound in a remote tribal region of northwestern Pakistan.  It’s the deadliest attack since Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif took power a month ago.

“At least four missiles were fired from two drones at a house of local tribesmen,” said a local official to foreign reporters of the deadliest drone strike in 9 months.

The target was the militant Haqqani network, a group the US blames for a some of the deadliest and most high-profile attacks on Western and government targets in Afghanistan.  An Afghan military official this week said his country’s insurgency could be ended “within weeks” if Pakistan were to get serious about cracking down on the Haqqani and other groups in the lawless north.

But Pakistan increasingly views the drone strikes as violations of its territorial sovereignty.  Previous Pakistani administrations have complained about the drone strikes in public, although leaked US diplomatic cables that showed leaders agreed to them in private.