MIRANSHAH: A US drone strike killed six militants and injured three others on Sunday in a restive Pakistani tribal region near the Afghan border, officials said.

The strike took place in the Dargamandi area, seven kilometres (four miles) north of Miranshah which is the main town in the North Waziristan tribal region.

The US drone fire two missiles at a compound which caught fire and, according to sources, six people died on the spot and three were wounded.

The sources said that the dead and the wounded belonged to Punjab and were associated with militant commander Qari Abbas who was killed in an earlier drone strike on a car in the area.

The government, says APP, condemned the US drone strike and as a violation of the country’s sovereignty and (a threat to its) territorial integrity.

The Foreign Office spokesman called for an immediate end to US drone attacks and said Pakistan had consistently maintained that drone strikes were counter-productive, entailed loss of innocent civilian lives and had human rights and humanitarian implications. Such strikes set dangerous precedents in inter-state relations, the spokesman said in a statement.

The US drone strikes, he said, adversely affected the mutual desire of Pakistan and the US to forge a cordial and cooperative relationship and ensure peace and stability in the region.

The area targeted by the drone is said to be the stronghold of Afghanistan's Haqqani network, a guerrilla faction linked to the Taliban.

US drone attacks are deeply unpopular in Pakistan, but Washington sees them as a vital tool in the fight against militants in the lawless tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.

The Pakistani government has repeatedly protested against drone strikes as a violation of its sovereignty. But privately officials have been reported as saying the attacks can be useful in removing militants from the country.