MIRANSHAH: Two US missile strikes in Pakistan`s tribal district on the Afghan border killed at least 14 rebels on Wednesday, local security officials said.

The first attack took place in Dandey Darpakhel village, five kilometres (three miles) northwest of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal district, a renowned hub for Taliban and Al-Qaeda linked militants.

"At least 10 militants were killed in the US drone attack which targeted the compound of a local militant, Abdul Aziz," a senior security official in the area told AFP, adding that the death toll may rise.

The official said the nationalities of the dead militants was not yet known.

Another security official in the region confirmed the strike and casualties.

In the second attack, a US drone fired two missiles which struck a vehicle, killing four rebels in Amboor Shaga village of Datta Khel town in North Waziristan tribal area, 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of Miranshah.

US forces have been waging a drone war against Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked commanders in Pakistan`s northwestern 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 1,040 people have been killed in 122 drone strikes in Pakistan since August 2008, including a number of senior militants. However, the attacks fuel anti-American sentiment in the conservative Muslim country.

Washington has branded the rugged tribal area on the Afghan border -- part of which has been hit by Pakistan`s catastrophic flooding -- a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous place on Earth.

Officials in Washington say the drone strikes are a vital tool needed to protect the 150,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, and have killed a number of high-value targets including Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.

Al-Qaeda announced in June that its number three leader and Osama bin Laden`s one-time treasurer Mustafa Abu al-Yazid had been killed in what security officials said appeared to be a drone strike in North Waziristan.

Under US pressure to crack down on Islamist havens along the Afghan border, Pakistan has in the past year significantly increased operations against militants in the area.

More than 3,700 people have been killed in the last three years in a series of suicide attacks and bomb explosions across Pakistan, many of them carried out by the Taliban and other Al-Qaeda-linked Islamist extremists.


BDST: 1450 HRS, September 08 2010