MIRAMSHAH, Oct 3: Twenty-one people, two women and a child among them, were killed in a missile attack on a village in North Waziristan on Friday.

According to local people, the missile was fired from a Predator drone which hit a house in the village some 15km west of Miramshah. Military sources denied that any Nato drone had carried out the attack inside Pakistan territory.

According to Reuters, military spokesman Maj-Gen Athar Abbas said the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force had informed Pakistan it would be conducting an operation across the border from North Waziristan.

“Isaf informed us at around 4pm that they were conducting an operation in Afghanistan, across from North Waziristan. There was no violation, no incursion or intrusion on our side.”

Local officials, however, said 21 people had been killed in the attack, but their names and nationalities could not be ascertained.

A house belonging to Afghan nationals Wazir Jan and Abdur Rehman near a school was destroyed in the attack.

According to AFP, some 16 Al Qaeda-related Arab militants were killed in the attack. However, there was no immediate confirmation from the Pakistani military or from the US-led coalition in Afghanistan.

Local officials said US air power had hit the village lying just inside Pakistan’s territory after US troops came under fire in Afghanistan’s Khost province.

But the army said the incident happened inside Afghanistan.

“Nothing of this sort happened in Pakistan’s area,” Maj-Gen Athar Abbas told AFP.

On Tuesday, an unmanned plane had fired four missiles in Khushali Toorikhel area in the Mirali tehsil, killing eight people.

Most of the dead were from the Middle East and Central Asian states, the sources said.

They said the missile attack was carried out at about 11:30pm and the house of one Dossel was targeted.

Our Correspondent in Galanai adds: At least six mortar shells fired from Afghanistan landed in Kodakhel area of Mohmand Agency on Thursday but caused no damage.

US helicopters and spy planes also violated Pakistan’s border and flew over the area for about 20 minutes.