A US missile attack destroyed a suspected Taliban-linked hideout in Pakistan's northwest tribal belt on Monday and killed at least eight militants, local security officials said.
It was the second such strike in 48 hours, as the United States pursues Taliban fighters and other Al-Qaeda-linked groups that have carved out strongholds in the rugged North Waziristan district on the Afghan border.
Three missiles struck a compound mid-morning in the Khushali Toorkhel area, about 25 kilometres (15 miles) east of Miranshah, North Waziristan's main town.
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"The target was a militant compound belonging to followers of a local rebel commander Haleem Khan, and the US drone fired three missiles," a senior Pakistani security official told AFP, asking not to be named.
"Eight militants were killed and several others sustained injuries in the strike," another security official told AFP. Officials initially put the death toll at four, but said it was likely to rise.
Pakistani security officials said most of the dead were militants from the Mehsud tribe in neighbouring South Waziristan, from which top leaders and many footsoldiers in Pakistan's main Tehreek-e-Taliban faction are drawn.
Officials said that Khan, the local rebel commander, was not among the dead.
He is believed to have ties to Taliban-linked Afghan warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who is reputed to control up to 2,000 fighters in the region who stage attacks over the border against foreign forces stationed in Afghanistan.
The United States has significantly increased drone strikes on North Waziristan this year, the last one on Saturday killing seven militants.
More than 880 people have been killed in nearly 100 drone strikes in Pakistan since August 2008, and the bombing raids fuel anti-American sentiment in Muslim Pakistan and draw public condemnation from the government.
But officials in Washington say the strikes are a vital tool to protect the approximately 126,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, and have killed a number of high-value targets including Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.
Many officials also believe his successor Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a strike in January, but there has been no official confirmation of his death.
The rugged tribal belt has become a stronghold for hundreds of extremists who fled neighbouring Afghanistan after the US-led invasion in late 2001.
Under US pressure, Pakistan has in the past year significantly increased operations against militants in the area, which Washington has called the most dangerous region on Earth and a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda.
Pakistan last year launched its most ambitious military offensive yet against Taliban militants in South Waziristan, expanding the campaign to many of the other seven semi-autonomous tribal districts hugging the Afghan border.
The military has, however, appeared reluctant to launch a similar all-out assault into North Waziristan, where many insurgents have sought sanctuary.
