The strike took place in Kanni Garam village of restive South Waziristan tribal district.

"Six people were killed after a missile fired from a spy plane hit a vehicle," a security official told AFP.

A local administration official and intelligence officials confirmed the missile strike.

"Those who had been killed in the strike are mostly Taliban militants," the security official said.

"A nearby house was also damaged in the missile strike," another security official said.

Earlier an official said that according to initial reports a house was hit in the missile strike.

Local resident Israr Jan said that he saw a missile hit a vehicle parked outside a house.

"We were standing at some distance and saw a vehicle being hit by a missile fired from a spy plane," Jan said.

Semi-autonomous South Waziristan is a stronghold of Pakistan's top Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud, who recently threatened to avenge missile strikes with attacks across the country and in the United States.

Earlier this month six suspected militants were killed in two similar strikes in the area.

The missile attacks follow US President Barack Obama's unveiling of a strategy to defeat extremists in South Asia that puts Pakistan at the heart of the fight against Al-Qaeda.

However, Pakistan's government is opposed to the attacks by unmanned aircraft, which it says violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among Pakistanis.

Around 370 people, including suspected militants, have died in around 39 such attacks since August 2008.

Pakistan has paid dearly for its alliance with the US in its "war on terror," with militant attacks killing more than 1,700 people since July 2007.

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

US military says 15 militants killed in Afghanistan
Afghan and US-led soldiers killed 15 alleged militants in air strikes and mortar fire on Friday after coming under attack in southern Afghanistan, the US military said.

The soldiers were driving to a village in the province of Zabul to talk to community elders about security issues when they came under gun attack from a compound, it said in a statement.

They fired back and killed one gunman but were attacked again while searching other compounds, it said.

"The Afghan-led force returned fire with mortars and called for close-air support to suppress the threat," it said. "The combined force pursued the militants into a nearby cave complex, killing 14 and wounding 12 others."

Another suspected militant was arrested, the statement said.

It was impossible to confirm independently who had been killed.

Southern Afghanistan is the main battleground for Taliban extremists fighting Afghan and foreign soldiers from about 40 nations who are serving under US and NATO command.

In Zabul most troops are US and Romanian.

earlier related report
Obama warns US has 'huge interests' in Pakistan
President Barack Obama voiced worries Wednesday about the weakness of Pakistan's government and did not rule out US intervention if the Islamic power's nuclear weapons fell into extremist hands.

In a prime-time news conference marking the 100-day milestone of his presidency, Obama said he was increasingly confident that Pakistan was serious about fighting Islamic militants and that its nuclear weapons were secure.

But Obama said that the civilian government of President Asif Ali Zardari, who is due in Washington next week, was unable to provide basic services that would ensure people's loyalty.

"I am gravely concerned about the situation in Pakistan, not because I think that they're immediately going to be overrun and the Taliban would take over in Pakistan," Obama said.

"I'm more concerned that the civilian government there right now is very fragile," he said.

"We want to respect their sovereignty, but we also recognize that we have huge strategic interests -- huge national security interests -- in making sure that Pakistan is stable and that you don't end up having a nuclear-armed militant state."

Pressed on whether the United States would intervene if Pakistan's nuclear arsenal were under threat, Obama said he would not respond to a hypothetical question.

Pakistan, the Islamic world's only declared nuclear weapons state, has been livid over US infringements on its sovereignty.

Obama, who has put a new focus on rooting out extremism in Pakistan and Afghanistan in his first 100 days, has continued the previous George W. Bush administration's controversial drone attacks inside Pakistan.

The unmanned attacks are said to have killed high-level members of the Al-Qaeda network hidden in remote areas but they have inflamed public opinion by killing civilians.

Pakistan has asked the United States to respect its sovereignty and allow it to hunt militants on its own, but US officials have said that elements in Pakistani intelligence tipped off militants over some previous raids.

Many US-based experts believe that elements of Pakistan's powerful military and intelligence are defying civilian leader Zardari, who took over last year from military ruler Pervez Musharraf.

But Obama said he was confident that Pakistan's nuclear arsenal was secure, "because the Pakistani army, I think, recognizes the hazards of those weapons falling into the wrong hands."

He also said that Pakistan's military had just recently started to overcome its historic animosity toward India.

"You're starting to see some recognition just in the last few days that the obsession with India as the mortal threat to Pakistan has been misguided and that their biggest threat right now comes internally," Obama said.

Pakistan has fought three full-fledged wars with India since their separation at birth in 1947 on independence from Britain. The two nations both declared themselves nuclear powers in 1998.

US military commanders have repeatedly complained that Pakistan was devoting troops to the Indian border that could be used to fight Islamic extremists in lawless areas bordering Afghanistan.

But the United States has welcomed Pakistan's new deadly offensive in the troubled Swat valley, where the government had entered a controversial deal with militants to allow the imposition of Islamic shariah law.

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