The strike, which was carried out by at least one unmanned aircraft, was part of the Obama administration's rising campaign to use drones to target militants who regularly stage cross-border attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan.

The house destroyed in the strike was located in Khaddi village in North Waziristan, part of Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal region that is almost entirely controlled by militants, said the intelligence officials.

The dead included three militants and three local tribesmen who were harboring them, said the officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The US has carried out over 100 drone strikes in Pakistan this year, roughly twice the number in 2009. The US refuses publicly to acknowledge the covert CIA attacks, but officials have said privately that they have killed several senior Al-Qaeda and Taleban commanders over the years.

Almost all of this year's strikes have occurred in North Waziristan, an area in which the US has repeatedly requested Pakistan conduct a military offensive. The Pakistani government has resisted, saying its military is already stretched thin by operations being conducted elsewhere.

Many analysts suspect, however, that Pakistan doesn't want to cross Taliban militants with whom it has historical ties and could be useful allies in Afghanistan after foreign troops withdraw. Pakistani officials often criticize the US drone strikes, calling them a violation of the country's sovereignty. But the Pakistani government allows the drones to take off from bases within the country and is widely believed to provide intelligence necessary for the attacks.