US drone attacks target Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked commanders in the nuclear-armed country's tribal belt, where Taliban and foreign militants have carved out havens in mountainous areas outside direct government control.

North Waziristan has been increasingly targeted in the covert US drone campaign since a Jordanian Al-Qaeda double agent blew himself up killing seven CIA employees in a neighbouring Afghan province in December.

Saturday's attack destroyed buildings used by suspected militants in the suburbs of Mir Ali in North Waziristan district.

The missiles targeted two compounds owned by local tribesmen, a Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"We have confirmation of four people killed and more than five injured," said another Pakistani security official, confirming the US drone attack.

The identities of the dead were not immediately clear, nor whether they were locals or foreigners. The tribesmen who owned the compounds were said by local residents to belong to the Taliban and were known to support foreign fighters.

Uzbek militants have strongholds in the area and Arab militants are also present, the Pakistani security officials said.

Washington calls Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt the global headquarters of Al-Qaeda and the most dangerous region in the world. Islamist militants in the area are believed to be fuelling Afghanistan's eight-year war.

More than 830 people have been killed in more than 90 US strikes in Pakistan since August 2008, with a surge in the past year as President Barack Obama has put Pakistan at the heart of his fight against Al-Qaeda.

Pakistani air strikes on Saturday killed at least 11 militants in a new offensive against foreign fighters in the northwest tribal belt, officials said.

Under US pressure, Pakistan's military claims to have made big gains against Taliban and Al-Qaeda strongholds in the past year, following major offensives in the northwestern district of Swat and in South Waziristan.

A paramilitary spokesman told AFP the Pakistani air strikes took place in three places in Orakzai district and a local tribal administration official confirmed the toll. It was not clear if there were any foreign militants among the dead.

This week the US government for the first time offered a legal justification for its drone strikes against Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, citing the right to "self-defence" under international law.

Rights activists and some legal experts charge that the drone strikes in Pakistan and other countries, outside any traditional battlefield, amount to extrajudicial executions in violation of international and US law.

Pakistan air strike kills 11 militants
Peshawar, Pakistan (AFP) March 27, 2010 - Pakistani air strikes Saturday killed at least 11 militants in a new offensive against foreign fighters in the restive northwest tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, officials said.

A paramilitary spokesman told AFP the 11 militants were killed in attacks on three places in Orakzai district and a local tribal administration official confirmed the death toll.

It was not immediately clear if there were any foreign militants among the dead, but Pakistan said Friday that 32 militants and five soldiers were killed in the heaviest battle against Arab, Afghan and Uzbek fighters.

Troops on Wednesday expanded their campaign against Taliban militants believed to have fled a major offensive in South Waziristan last year by launching an assault to eradicate them from neighbouring Orakzai.

Pakistan's mountainous and semi-autonomous tribal belt became a stronghold for hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked extremists who fled Afghanistan to regroup and launch cross-border attacks after the US-led invasion in late 2001.

In a separate incident, militants early Saturday blew up a boys middle school in Alingarh village of Mohmand tribal district, where troops are also hunting Taliban rebels, local administration chief Amjad Ali Khan said.

"The school was destroyed in the bombing, but there were no casualties," Khan told AFP.

Militants blew up another boys primary school early Saturday in Khyber, a lawless tribal district bordering Afghanistan, local administration chief Shafeerullah Wazir told AFP, but there were no casualties.

Separately police on Saturday found the bodies of six truck drivers who were kidnapped a few days ago in a restive northwestern town.

The bodies of the six, who had been shot dead, were found in Thal district, local police official Abdul Rehman told AFP.

"A letter found in the pocket of one dead truck driver said that if anyone supplied goods to the Parachinar Shiite community, he will be treated like this," Rehman said.

Parachinar, the main town of Kurram tribal district, is a sectarian flashpoint where activists from the rival Shiite and Sunni Muslim groups have clashed in the past.

A police spokesman confirmed the incident, but did not identify the suspects, saying an investigation was in progress.

Shiites account for about 20 percent of Pakistan's Sunni-dominated population. The two communities usually coexist peacefully, but more than 4,000 people have died in outbreaks of sectarian violence since the late 1980s.

Attacks by Islamist extremists, meanwhile, have killed more than 3,100 people since July 2007. Most attacks are blamed on the Pakistani Taliban.

In another incident, paramilitary forces arrested a rebel commander wanted for the 2005 kidnapping and murder of six Chinese engineers after a gun battle late Friday in the border town of Chaman in the restive southwest province of Baluchistan.

"We have arrested a Baluch Liberation Army commander Haji Murad Khan after a chase and a gunfight and seized explosives, wireless sets, Indian and Afghan currency from him," Colonel Asad Shahzada of the Pakistan Frontier Corps told AFP.

"Khan, along with two others, was intercepted when he was entering into Pakistan from Afghanistan in a car. Two others fled after firing, but Khan was arrested," Shahzada said.

The government had offered a bounty of three million rupees (about 36,000 dollars) for his arrest.

Baluch rebels rose up in 2004 demanding political autonomy and a greater share of profits from the region's wealth of natural resources, namely oil and gas. Hundreds of people have died in the unrest since then.

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