15 Killed in Pakistan by U.S. Drones Aimed at Taliban ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - At least 15 people suspected of being Taliban militants were killed by an American drone strike late Friday in northwestern Pakistan, according to a Pakistani intelligence official and local residents. The strike, the first since Pakistan reopened NATO supply routes this week, took place in the village of Zoi Narai of the Datta Khel subdivision, the third-largest town in North Waziristan. A drone fired four missiles at a compound owned by a Taliban commander named Rahimullah, said a local resident who was reached by telephone. The commander, who apparently was not present at the time of the strike, is thought to be a close aide of a local warlord, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who controls a vast part of North Waziristan, a restive tribal region used as a haven by many local and foreign militants. Mr. Rahimullah, who uses one name, helps recruit militants to take part in offensives against Western troops across the border in Afghanistan, according to local residents. A Pakistani intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that all of those killed by the drone's missiles were loyalists of Mr. Bahadur. Local residents said that soon after the strike Taliban militants cordoned off the area around the compound and searched for bodies in the debris. American drone strikes are extremely unpopular in Pakistan, where anti-American sentiment has been growing. A survey released in June by the Pew Research Center showed that 74 percent of respondents considered the United States an enemy, compared with 69 percent last year and 64 percent three years ago. While the United States views the remotely piloted aircraft as vital in the fight against militants, in Pakistan the drones are seen as a breach of national sovereignty that also cause civilian deaths. Also on Friday, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, the Pakistani Army chief, visited the northwestern border district of Dir, which has recently endured a spate of attacks by Taliban militants from across the border in Afghanistan. In another development on Friday, gunmen on motorcycles opened fire at a roadside restaurant in southwestern Pakistan, killing 18 people, officials said. Pakistanis who were trying to travel to Europe with smugglers were the target of the attack in the remote town of Turbat in Baluchistan Province, said Abdul Razzaq, a government official in the area. The motive for the killings was unclear.