Two US drone strikes struck militants in North Waziristan on Thursday, killing at least 21, officials said.
The aircraft fired missiles hours apart on separate targets.
Six militants were killed and six were injured in the first attack that destroyed a compound in Spalga town near Miranshah and at least 15 died in the second attack on a vehicle near the town of Mir Ali, AFP reported.
AFP put the number of deaths in Spalga at five. “The death toll may rise,” a security official warned AFP after the second strike targeted militants travelling in a double cabin pick-up.
“At least 15 militant have been killed in the second strike,” he said, describing them all as “foreigners”.
Another security official in Miranshah said they were all Uzbek Islamist fighters. “The vehicle caught fire and the dead bodies are badly mutilated,” he added.
One of the officials said those killed in the first attack were loyalists of Badar Mansoor and the Haqqani network, loyal to the Afghan Taliban whose leaders are understood to be based in North Waziristan.