Drone attacks have stirred anger in Pakistan as they often result in civilian casualties [AFP]
At least 14 people have been killed in an attack by suspected US drone aircraft in Pakistan's North Waziristan region. Up to 18 missiles were fired at targets in Dattakhel village, close to the border with Afghanistan, security officials said on Tuesday morning. It was the third drone attack since US officials said Taliban from the region were behind a failed bombing in New York's Times Square on May 1.
"Three missiles hit a vehicle and three militants sitting in it were killed," an intelligence official in the region said.
The drones then attacked a nearby compound used by fighters, firing about 12 missiles into it.
"The militants have cordoned off the area. So far they've retrieved 11 bodies from the debris," a second security official said.
"The death toll may rise because the militants are still searching for bodies."
Identities unclear
Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder, reporting from the capital, Islamabad, said the attack lasted for up 20-25 minutes.
"According to reports from the area, up to 18 missiles were fired against targets on the ground. These were encampments and vehicles."
There was no word on the identity of any of the fighters killed but the attack was in an area where members of an Afghan Taliban faction led by a commander known as Gul Bahadur operate.
Foreign fighters linked to al-Qaeda are said to be in the area as well as Pakistani Taliban fighters fleeing an army offensive in South Waziristan.
Drone attacks have stirred anger in Pakistan as they often result in civilian casualties.
According to statistics compiled by Pakistani authorities, more than 90 per cent of the 708 people killed in attacks targeting the tribal areas in 2009 were civilians.
Mosharraf Zaidi, a journalist in Islamabad, said the killings of innocent people were feeding into "the radicalisation agenda and narrative that many people in Pakistan are subject to."
"If the only metric of success is to kill members of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, then certainly [drone attacks] have been successful," he told Al Jazeera.
"But if the objective is to win the global war on terror and to defeat the radicalisation agenda in this part of the world, and ensure that we're not creating new terrorists and new recruits for al-Qaeda and the Taliban, then ... I think there are a lot of questions."
Attacks to expand
Last week, officials said that the US intelligence agency had been granted approval by the government to expand drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal regions in a move to step up military operations against Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters.
Targets would now include low-level combatants, even if their identities were not known.
Last month, Hakimullah Mehsud, the leader of the Pakistani Taliban who was previously thought killed by a missile from a drone, appeared in internet videos threatening suicide attacks in the US.
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said Washington expects more co-operation from Pakistan in fighting terrorism and warned of "severe consequences" if an attack on US soil were traced back to the country.
Faisal Shahzad, the suspect in the Times Square bombingattempt, has reportedly claimed to have visited a Taliban camp in the Waziristan region.
CIA-operated drones have frequently targeted the group over the past year, and its members have vowed to avenge strikes that have killed several of their commanders.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistan's foreign minister, told CBS television channel last week that the US should not be surprised if fighters try to carry out more attacks.
"They're not going to sort of sit and welcome you [to] sort of eliminate them. They're going to fight back," Qureshi said.
At least fourteen people in Pakistan's  region have been killed in drone strikes earlier today by suspected US .

The attacks happened in the  village, located near the Afghanistan border; as many as eighteen missiles were fired at targets, according to security authorities. A local intelligence official said that "Three missiles hit a vehicle and three militants sitting in it were killed."

A nearby compound used by rebels was also attacked; around a dozen missiles were fired by drones. The dead in that attack are alleged to have been fighters. A reporter for Al Jazeera says the strikes lasted from twenty to 25 minutes.

"The militants have cordoned off the area. So far they've retrieved 11 bodies from the debris. The death toll may rise because the militants are still searching for bodies," an unnamed security official commented.