ISLAMABAD, Jan 24: The death toll from two suspected US missile attacks in tribal areas of Pakistan has risen to 22, officials and residents said on Saturday. Eight suspected foreign militants were among the dead.

A senior security official said that authorities were trying to determine the seniority of an Egyptian Al Qaeda militant believed to have been killed in the attacks.

Friday’s attacks were the first since the inauguration of President Barack Obama, and suggest that he would allow US forces to continue targeting Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives inside Pakistan’s tribal belt.

Pakistani leaders complain that the stepped-up missile strikes — more than 30 since August — violate the country’s sovereignty and undermine the government’s own efforts to tackle violence at home.

However, US officials have defended the tactic and say missiles fired from remotely piloted aircraft have killed a string of militant leaders behind attacks in Afghanistan and beyond.

Three intelligence officials told AP that funerals were held on Saturday for nine Pakistanis killed on Friday in Zeraki, a village in the North Waziristan region.

The officials, citing reports from field agents and residents, said Taliban fighters had earlier removed the bodies of five suspected foreign militants who also died in the first missile strike on Friday.

A senior security official in Islamabad identified one of the slain men as a suspected Al Qaeda operative called Mustafa Al Misri. He said it was unclear if the man was a significant figure.

The second strike hit a house in South Waziristan. Residents and security officials say eight people died in the village of Gangikhel.

Resident Allah Noor Wazir said he attended funeral for the owner of the targeted house, Malik Deen Faraz, his three sons and a guest.

“I also heard that three bodies had been taken away by Taliban. They say they belong to foreigners,” Wazir told the AP by telephone.—AP