One American missile struck a house and a second hit a vehicle in the town of Ghulam Khan just north of Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, said the two officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to talk to the media.
North Waziristan — the area that has seen the overwhelming majority of drone strikes over the last two months — is home to hundreds of Pakistani and foreign militants, many belonging to or allied with Al-Qaeda and the Taleban.
The region also hosts the Haqqani network, a powerful insurgent group that US officials say is behind many of the attacks on US and NATO forces just across the border in Afghanistan. The group is believed to control the town hit by the missiles Sunday.
The identities of those killed were not immediately known.
The intelligence officials said agents on ground were collecting more details.
North Waziristan is too dangerous for outsiders to visit and independently confirm the attacks, and US officials do not acknowledge firing the missiles, much less discuss who they are targeting.
It is widely believed, however, that Pakistan’s army has given tacit approval to the strikes and the recent spike in attacks has not attracted a greater level of criticism.
Washington wants Islamabad to launch a military offensive in the region, but so far has had to rely on missile strikes to hamper militant operations. The pace of the attacks has picked up recently, with roughly 20 apiece in the past two months, double the preceding monthly tally.
Some locals allege that the suspected US drone strikes regularly kill innocents, while others say the missiles are accurate and most of the dead are militants or villagers knowingly harboring them.
