PAKISTAN, -
A U.S. missile strike killed at least three militants in a northwestern Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border before dawn Saturday, two Pakistani intelligence officials said.
Some suspects were also wounded when four missiles struck a compound near the Angore Adda border town in South Waziristan, the officials said.
They said those killed and wounded were the fighters of Maulvi Nazir, a Pakistani militant commander who is accused of working with Taliban and al-Qaida to direct cross-border attacks.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to talk to media on record.
Since 2008, Washington has regularly used drone-fired missiles to target insurgents and their hideouts in Pakistani tribal regions where local and Afghan factions like the Haqqanis and al-Qaida men are hiding.
U.S. officials do not acknowledge the CIA-led program publicly.
Pakistan protests the strikes, which are unpopular in this Islamic nation.
The latest strike came a day after the drone-fired U.S. missiles killed four people in the North Waziristan tribal region. The identities of the victims were not known, according to officials.
On Thursday, a missile attack in North Waziristan had killed Janbaz Zadran, a man about whom U.S. officials say he was a top commander in the Haqqani network and had helped orchestrate attacks in Kabul and southeastern Afghanistan.
