PESHAWAR: A suspected US drone attack killed up to eight militants in Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal area Tuesday in the second such strike in the region in three days, security officials said.

The attack occurred in the village of Sara Khwara in the tribal region.

There were no immediate reports that any high-value targets were killed in the strike about 25 kilometres west of Wana, the main town in the tribal area and just a few kilometres from the Afghan border.

Wana, a known Taliban and al-Qaeda hub, is the main stomping ground of Maulvi Nazir, a key Taliban commander accused by the United States of recruiting and sending fighters to Afghanistan to attack US and NATO forces.

‘It was a drone strike on a compound, where militants used to stay before crossing the border or after coming back from Afghanistan…Eight militants were killed,’ said one Pakistani security official on condition of anonymity.

Another security official said two missiles were fired, killing seven to eight militants.

‘Foreigners and local Taliban were assembled there. It was a compound -- like a house in the mountains,’ added the official. Foreigners is a word used in Pakistan routinely to refer to suspected al-Qaeda militants.

It was the second suspected US strike in three days. Security officials said six militants were killed in another strike in South Waziristan on Saturday.