A suspected US drone strike Thursday killed four Taliban militants, including two senior commanders, in north-western Pakistan, security officials said.
"A US drone fired six missiles into a vehicle in the Azam Warsak area," said an intelligence official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, DPA reported.
"The attack killed all four people in the car," the official said.
The attack took place near the Afghan border in Pakistan's tribal district of South Waziristan, where Taliban and al-Qaeda are believed to have bases.
Among the dead, the official said, were the brother and cousin of Maulvi Nazir, the leader of a Taliban faction that has reached a peace deal with the Pakistani government. The group does not attack targets inside Pakistan but continues to conduct cross-border raids against NATO forces in Afghanistan. Both men were commanders in the Maulvi Nazir group, the official said.
US officials generally do not acknowledge the drone campaign, which has intensified since 2008, but the CIA-operated drones fly over Pakistan's mountainous tribal region along the Afghan border on an almost daily basis to target militant positions.
Hundreds of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters have been killed in the strikes, Pakistani and US officials privately claimed. But the toll could not be confirmed independently because journalists and aid workers have little access to the tribal area.