A missile fired on Sunday by a U.S. drone struck a militant camp in Pakistan's South Waziristan region on the Afghan border, killing three people, officials said.
The drone strike came a day after a suicide car bomber killed 27 soldiers and two passersby in an attack on a military convoy in the northwest. Pakistani Taliban said the bombing was a reaction to U.S. drone attacks.
Shahab Ali Shah, the top administrative official from South Waziristan, said the blasts reported there earlier Sunday were caused by U.S. missiles. In addition to the three people killed, another five people were wounded, he said.
An intelligence official confirmed the assessment that missiles were involved. He spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media on the record.
A security official told Reuters the camp was being used by militants from Pakistan's Punjab province.
Empty compound?
Residents said the compound was empty as militants had left it hours before the strike.
"The drones were flying last night and we saw those living in the house leaving in the dark," said villager Kaleem Wazir.
"The building has been destroyed completely and there's just a vehicle parked inside. There's no dead body, no wounded," he said.
The United States, frustrated by an intensifying insurgency in Afghanistan getting support from the Pakistani side of the border, began launching more drone attacks last year.
Since then, about 35 U.S. strikes have killed about 350 people, including mid-level al-Qaida members, according to reports from Pakistani officials, residents and militants.
Pakistan objects to the strikes. Officials say about one in six of the strikes over the past year caused civilian deaths without killing any militants, and that fuels anti-U.S. sentiment, complicating the military's struggle to subdue violence.
