MIRANSHAH: A US missile attack that demolished a compound in Pakistan's tribal belt used by militants crossing into Afghanistan killed 13 fighters, Pakistani security officials said Sunday.

A US drone slammed two missiles into the building on Saturday in Saidgi village, seven kilometres (four miles) north of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan tribal district bordering Afghanistan, officials said.

"Taliban have recovered more dead bodies from the debris. We have reports that a total of 13 militants were killed and three injured," an intelligence official in Miranshah told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"One of the local commanders, Abdur Rehman, was also killed," he added.

The compound was used by local militants attached to the Haqqani network, which has attacked US troops in Afghanistan, said a senior security official.

Other security officials confirmed 13 were killed in the strike, including a local commander, but it was unclear if any foreigners were among the dead.

Mosques in Miranshah announced that Rehman was "martyred" in the strike and that his funeral prayers would be held in Saidgi, an AFP reporter said.

The US military does not as a rule confirm drone attacks, which US officials say have killed a number of top-level militants.

At least three suspected US strikes in 10 days have struck North Waziristan, where Islamabad is under growing US pressure to take action against the Haqqani network and other extremists who infiltrate Afghanistan to attack.

Some US officials and regional analysts suspect Pakistan's top spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence, maintains ties to the group's leader Jalaluddin Haqqani, considering him a useful asset in Afghanistan.

In October, Pakistan sent about 30,000 troops into battle in South Waziristan, following a significant campaign to uproot homegrown Taliban from in and around the northwestern valley of Swat.

Although Pakistani troops fight militants across much of its semi-autonomous tribal belt on the Afghan border, North Waziristan has seen so far only limited air strikes and no major ground offensive.

But the district, along with other tribal areas of Pakistan, has seen a rise in suspected US drone strikes since US President Barack Obama took office and put Pakistan on the frontline of the war on Al-Qaeda.

Since August 2008, at least 69 such strikes have killed about 663 people, although it is difficult to confirm the identity of those killed.