Four militants died in a US drone attack in North Waziristan region on Friday, less than 24 hours after a different US pilotless reconnaissance aircraft crashed elsewhere in the restive tribal badlands, intelligence officials said. Multiple missiles struck a compound in the Khaso Khel area, located near the region's second main town of Mir Ali.

"The identities of those killed were not known," said an official, but he said that foreign Taliban fighters were believed to be among the dead. Separately, intelligence officials said a suspected US drone crashed in the neighbouring South Waziristan late Thursday.

The unarmed pilotless aircraft, which was about 2.5 metres in length with a wingspan of around three metres, hit the ground in the Bagh Narai area, north-west of the region's main town of Wana. "It apparently went down because of some technical fault," an official said on condition of anonymity, owing to the sensitive nature of the information. "The aircraft has a serial number 1010-27096, with 'BMF Audio Control Service, Made in US' written on the frame."

Copyright Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 2012