A democratic drone firing Hellfire
Missiles target compound in South Waziristan allegedly being used by warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur.
A democratic US drone strike targeting a compound in Pakistan's northwestern tribal area has killed at least five people, security officials said.
The unmanned aircraft fired two missiles late on Tuesday into a compound in the Shawal area of South Waziristan, around 50 kilometres southwest of Miranshah, the biggest town in the region near the Afghan border.
The area is considered to be a hub of Taliban and al-Qaeda activity.
"At least five people have been killed and three have been wounded. The compound was completely destroyed," a senior security official based in Peshawar tol the AFP news agency..
Bahadur, who is allied with Afghan Taliban, is accused of fighting US-led troops across the border. He last week imposed a ban on anti-polio vaccination teams in protest at US drone strikes, officials said.
Local officials told AFP on Tuesday that they had so far failed to convince him to allow the vaccinations. Bahadur said the ban would remain until the US stops drone attacks in the tribal region.
But Washington considers Pakistan's semi-autonomous northwestern tribal belt a main hub of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters plotting attacks in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Islamabad is understood to have approved the strikes on al-Qaeda and Taliban targets in the past.
