The missile attacks struck within hours of each other in North and South Waziristan, Taliban boltholes where Washington says Islamist fighters are hiding out, planning attacks on Western troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.

US drone strikes are hitting the tribal belt with increasing frequency, as the United States tries to stem the flow of militants waging a deadly insurgency against some 100,000 foreign troops stationed across the border.

In the first attack early Tuesday afternoon, a US drone fired two missiles killing five suspected Taliban in semi-autonomous South Waziristan district.

"A missile from a US drone fired on a compound of local Taliban commander Irfan Mehsud and killed five militants and injured six," said a security official in the area, who declined to be named.

The missiles targeted Sara Rogha, a village northeast of regional hub Wana and a stronghold of former Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US drone strike in August.

The security official said the spy plane fired two missiles on the compound, adding that reports suggested three of the dead could be Uzbeks.

An intelligence official, who also refused to be named, said his reports suggested low-level insurgent commander Irfan Mehsud had survived.

The second attack on Tuesday evening hit militants associated with the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network in North Waziristan, apparently killing a group of Afghan nationals at a house on the outskirts of the city of Miranshah.

"Seven Afghan Taliban have been killed and five injured in the US missile attack," said a security official, in a report confirmed by intelligence officials in North Waziristan.

The Haqqani network is a powerful group based in northwest Pakistan closely linked to Al-Qaeda and known for its ruthless and sophisticated attacks, including an assassination attempt on Afghan President Hamid Karzai in 2008.

It is led by former mujahedeen leader Jalaludin Haqqani, who was a hero of the Afghan resistance against Soviet occupation during the 1980s. He aligned himself with the Taliban in the 1990s.

The fatalities are impossible to verify independently as the US does not confirm drone strikes and the targets are deep in Taliban-controlled territory.

Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels fled Afghanistan after the 2001 US-led invasion, carving out boltholes and training camps in the remote Pakistani mountains.

Last Thursday, a US drone attack in North Waziristan killed 10 militants from an Al-Qaeda-linked network. The two attacks Tuesday brought the total number of US strikes in the semi-autonomous tribal area this month to six.

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.

Islamabad publicly opposes the US missile strikes, saying they violate its territorial sovereignty and deepen resentment among the populace.

Since August 2008, nearly 60 such strikes have killed more than 550 people.

But the Pakistani government welcomed the death of Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US drone attack on August 5.

Pakistan's security forces are also engaged in a fierce offensive against Taliban fighters in the northwest whom they blame for a wave of attacks across Pakistan that has killed more than 2,100 people in the last two years.

Pakistani air strikes have also hit South Waziristan, ahead of an expected ground offensive into the Pakistani Taliban's heartland, although the army is keeping silent on when such an assault would begin.

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