AP

PARACHINAR SUSPECTED US drones fired missiles at a vehicle and a house in northwest Pakistan, killing 12 people Monday in a rare attack in an area where some of NATO’s fiercest enemies have reportedly traveled, Pakistani officials said.

The first attack in the Kurram tribal area hit a vehicle, killing five people, said Noor Alam, a local government official.

As tribesmen rushed to the scene, the vehicle was again struck, killing two more people, he said.

Minutes later, a suspected US drone attacked a nearby house, killing five people, Alam said.

Seven of the 12 people killed in the attacks were Afghan militants whose bodies were taken across the border to be buried, Alam said.

The attacks were confirmed by two Pakistani intelligence officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to the media.

The Obama administration has dramatically stepped up covert CIA drone attacks against militants in Pakistan, but there have only been a handful of strikes in the Kurram tribal area.

Monday’s strikes could indicate an expansion of the program.

Most of the recent drone strikes have taken place in North Waziristan, an important sanctuary for the Haqqani network, which US military officials have said is the most dangerous militant group battling foreign forces in Afghanistan.

The US has repeatedly asked Pakistan to launch an offensive against the network in North Waziristan, but the military has said that its forces are stretched too thin by other operations in the tribal areas.

Local tribesmen said late last year that the Haqqani network cut a deal with Shiite Muslim militias in Kurram to allow the militants to cross through the area on their way to fighting in Afghanistan.

The route would help them avoid the drone attacks that have rained down on North Waziristan.

Drone attacks are extremely unpopular in Pakistan and have generated tension between Washington and Islamabad, which increased following the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden last month and humiliated the Pakistani government.

Around 1,000 tribesmen held a protest against drone strikes Monday in Miram Shah, one of the main towns in North Waziristan.

The rally was organised by a pro- Taliban political party, Jamiat Ulema Islam.

The crowd shouted “Down with America” and threatened to block NATO supplies to Afghanistan if the drone attacks don’t stop.

The US refuses to publicly acknowledge drone attacks in Pakistan, but officials have said privately that they have killed senior Taliban and Al Qaeda commanders.

Pakistani officials regularly criticise the drone strikes in public, but some are believed to support them in private depending on which militants they target.

At least some of the drones are also widely believed to take off from bases inside Pakistan.