MIRANSHAH : A US drone strike in Pakistan`s lawless northwest tribal belt, on the border with Afghanistan, killed two militants and wounded two others early on Saturday, security officials said.

The drone targeted a house in Mir Ali area, 30 kilometres (around 20 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, a security official and two intelligence officials told AFP.

North Waziristan is known as a hub of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked militants.
"It was a US drone strike. The drone fired one missile on a house and the house was completely destroyed," an intelligence official in Miranshah said.

A second official in the same area confirmed the strike and the death of two militants.

Two other militants were injured, the officials said, but it was not immediately clear if any of the militants were high-value targets.

US forces have been waging a covert drone war against Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked commanders in Pakistan`s northwest tribal belt, where militants have carved out havens in mountains outside direct government control.

The US military does not, as a rule, confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy pilotless drones in the region.

More than 900 people have been killed in over 100 drone strikes in Pakistan since August 2008.

On June 1, Al-Qaeda said its number three leader and Osama bin Laden`s one-time treasurer Mustafa Abu al-Yazid had been killed, in what security officials said was an apparent drone strike in North Waziristan.

Washington has branded Pakistan`s northwestern tribal area a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and officials say it is home to Islamist extremists who plan attacks on US-led troops in Afghanistan and on cities abroad.

Waziristan came under renewed scrutiny when Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American charged over an attempted bombing in New York on May 1, allegedly told US interrogators he went there for bomb training.

The United States has been increasing pressure on Pakistan to crack down on Islamist havens along the Afghan border.

Pakistani commanders have not ruled out an offensive in North Waziristan, but argue that gains in South Waziristan and the northwestern district of Swat need to be consolidated to prevent troops from being stretched too thinly.

BDST: 0931 HRS, June 26, 2010
SIS