 A US drone attack has killed at least four armed fighters in the North Waziristan tribal district in Pakistan, officials said.
According to intelligence officials, the unmanned aircraft launched the missiles on Sunday, in Datta Khel, located 40km west of North Waziristan's main town of Miranshah.
The town is a frequent target of the strikes, and the country's tribal region bordering Afghanistan, is increasingly seen as battleground in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
"The US drone hit a car immediately after it parked outside a house. Four militants have been killed," an intelligence official in Miranshah said.
A second intelligence official said that the drone fired two missiles.
As a policy, the United States does not confirm drone attacks, but its military and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy them in the region.
Protests
They demanded an end to the operations, which they said were killing civilians including women and children in the tribal areas.
More than 1,000 protesters staged the demonstration in Miranshah, shouting slogans against the United States and the CIA. The strikes are deeply unpopular among the public, who also see military action on Pakistani soil as a breach of their sovereignty.
According to a tally conducted by the AFP news agency, the covert campaign doubled missile attacks in the tribal area last year, where more than 100 drone strikes killed over 670 people in 2010 compared with 45 strikes that killed 420 in 2009.
Pakistan tacitly co-operates with the bombing campaign, which US officials say has badly damaged al-Qaeda's leadership. But it has stalled launching a ground offensive in North Waziristan, saying its troops are overstretched.
Washington says the strikes have killed a number of high-value targets, including Baitullah Mehsud, the former head of the Pakistani Taliban.
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