MIRAMSHAH, Sept 19 A US drone targeted a suspected car in Degan area of North Waziristan Agency on Sunday, killing five people, sources said.

They said that there were five people travelling in the vehicle when two missiles fired by the drone hit it. They names of those killed could not be ascertained.

US drones have carried out over a dozen attacks in North Waziristan since Sept 1.

AFP adds A security official in Peshawar confirmed the attack, while an intelligence official in Miramshah said that those killed in the strike were attached to the Haqqani network.

The network based in North Waziristan is linked to Al Qaeda and the Taliban and has become a particularly prickly thorn in the side of US-led forces trying to bring security to eastern Afghanistan.

A fresh surge in US missile strikes has killed about 100 suspected militants since early September in the northwestern tribal belt.