The strike from a suspected US spy plane was similar to an August 5 attack that killed Baitullah Mehsud, the head of Pakistan's Taliban organisation and suspected Al-Qaeda facilitator who had a five-million-dollar price on his head.

It was the third such strike since last Monday in North Waziristan, where militants linked to Taliban and Al-Qaeda are said to have sanctuaries in Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt that snakes the border with Afghanistan.

The drone fired a missile into a militant vehicle in Toori Khel village, the Pakistani officials said.

"Five militants, including two Arabs, were killed in the strike," a local government official told AFP on condition of anonymity. The same official said earlier four militants were killed in the strike.

"One of the seriously injured later succumbed to his injuries, three of the other injured are also in a serious condition," he added.

"The missile was fired from a US drone," he said.

Other intelligence officials said two Arabs were killed, but there was no immediate confirmation on their nationalities. Another Pakistani official said four militants died.

Residents said the vehicle was parked outside a building and was preparing to leave when it exploded in a fireball in a massive blast.

"We were sleeping in our home after saying dawn prayers when we heard a huge blast. Children started screaming and we thought it landed in our home," local resident Haider Khan told AFP by telephone.

"Later on, I found out it landed about 500 metres (yards) away, " he added.

"Its occupants died and four others, who were apparently there to see them off, were wounded," said Ameerullah Khan, telling AFP by telephone that he lived a "two-minute drive" from the site of the strike.

"I saw from the roof of my home the blown-up car. Flames continued to rage for almost half an hour after the strike," he added.

A similar attack in the area killed three militants last Tuesday. One day earlier, a strike targeting a madrassa religious school, which was believed to have been teaching radical Islam, and an adjoining house killed five people.

The United States says Islamist fighters are hiding in the Pakistani mountains near the Afghan border, plotting attacks on Western targets and crossing the porous frontier to attack foreign troops based in Afghanistan.

Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels are believed to have fled Afghanistan after the 2001 US-led invasion, carving out boltholes and training camps in the remote mountains of Pakistan's tribal belt.

The US military does not, as a rule, confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in neighbouring 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.

Some analysts believe, however, the government tacitly supports the attacks, as it shares the US goal of eliminating Mehsud's network.

Pakistan accused Mehsud of masterminding the 2007 assassination of ex-prime minister Benazir Bhutto and bomb attacks that killed hundreds of people in the nuclear-armed country over the last two years.

"Such attacks are conducted under mutual exchange of intelligence between Pakistan and the United States," said Rahimullah Yusufzai, a tribal affairs expert and Pakistani analyst.

"Such attacks are becoming more frequent because (Pakistan-US) cooperation against militants is growing," he told private Geo television.

In April, Pakistan launched a military offensive against the Taliban in the northwest districts of Buner, Lower Dir and Swat after militants advanced to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of the capital Islamabad.

The military says it has cleared the area of the Taliban but skirmishes have continued. The military said Monday that one clash wounded one soldier and killed eight "terrorists" in Dir.

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