A US drone strike killed seven militants at a compound in Pakistan's tribal North Waziristan region Sunday, security officials said.

The compound was located by a road in Shewa district about 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of the region's main town of Miranshah.

The drone fired four missiles at the compound and two vehicles parked outside were also destroyed, an intelligence official in Miranshah told AFP.

"At least seven militants were killed and three wounded," a security official in Peshawar told AFP, raising his earlier casualty estimate.

The casualties were confirmed by two other intelligence officials in Miranshah.

The strike is the latest in a series of US operations in the region that are believed to have targeted Taliban and Al-Qaeda extremists plotting attacks in Europe.

Security officials said last week that a drone strike had killed five German militants.

The United States has massively ramped up its drone campaign in Pakistan's lawless northwestern tribal region on the Afghan border, amid intelligence claims of a Mumbai-style terror plot to attack European cities. The plot was reportedly caught in its early planning stages.

Pakistani authorities have reported 27 drone attacks that have killed more than 150 people since September 3. The area is a hub for homegrown and foreign militants fighting in Afghanistan.

The missile attacks have also raised tensions with Islamabad over US dissatisfaction at Pakistani efforts to combat the Islamist threat.

Pakistan has said there is no justification for the drone strikes, describing them as "counter-productive" and a violation of the country's sovereignty.

The United States does not as a rule confirm drone attacks, but its military and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy the pilotless aircraft in the region.

Officials in Washington say previous drone strikes have killed a number of high-value targets, including the former Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.

Taliban militants have launched a string of attacks on NATO supply vehicles in Pakistan in the past week to avenge the drone strikes.

Pakistani Taliban on Sunday claimed responsibility for the latest attack on a NATO supply convoy in the southwest and vowed these would continue until the US drone strikes stopped.

Gunmen on Saturday torched at least 29 oil tankers in southwest Pakistan, the sixth attack in just over a week on vehicles carrying supplies for the 152,000-strong foreign forces fighting in Afghanistan.

Pakistani officials said on Sunday they had reopened the main land route for NATO supplies to Afghanistan and officials at the Torkham border in the northwest Khyber region, closed in a response to a NATO helicopter incursion.

earlier related report
NATO Afghan supplies resume at Pakistan border
Peshawar, Pakistan (AFP) Oct 10, 2010 - NATO supplies through Pakistan's Torkham border crossing into Afghanistan resumed Sunday, 11 days after Islamabad closed the point in response to a deadly NATO air attack, officials said.

"The first convoy of more than a dozen vehicles left for Afghanistan this afternoon," customs official Mohammad Nawaz told AFP.

More vehicles loaded with supplies for NATO and US troops were ready to leave, he added.

Pakistan's foreign ministry on Saturday announced the reopening of the main land route for NATO supplies "with immediate effect".

US and NATO forces are fighting a nine-year Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan and the route is vital to the war effort.

The decision came after US ambassador to Pakistan Anne Patterson on Wednesday apologised on behalf of the American people for the "terrible accident".

earlier related report
Taliban claim attack on NATO supply convoy in Pakistan
Miranshah, Pakistan (AFP) Oct 10, 2010 - Pakistani Taliban on Sunday claimed responsibility for the latest attack on a NATO supply convoy in the southwest and vowed they would continue until US drone strikes are stopped.

"We accept responsibility for the attacks on the NATO supply trucks and tankers in Sibi district on Saturday," Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Azam Tariq told AFP.

"We will continue the attacks on NATO trucks and tankers until the drone strikes are stopped," he said in a telephone call from an undisclosed location.

Gunmen on Saturday torched at least 29 oil tankers in southwest Pakistan, the sixth attack in just over a week on vehicles carrying supplies for the 152,000-strong foreign forces fighting the Taliban-led insurgency.

Previous attacks have also been claimed by Taliban.

Two police officers were hurt in the attack in remote Mitri area of Sibi district, 180 kilometres (112 miles) southeast of Quetta, the capital of oil and gas rich Baluchistan province, which borders Iran and Afghanistan.

"Some 30 gunmen attacked the tankers, which were parked outside a roadside hotel and opened fire early Saturday morning, injuring two local police officials," Abdul Mateen, a senior administration official in Mitri, told AFP.

Taliban militants have launched a string of attacks on NATO supply vehicles in Pakistan in the past week to avenge a new wave of US drone strikes targeting Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants in the country's lawless tribal region.

Pakistani authorities have reported 26 drone attacks since September 3 which have killed more than 140 people in the region, a hub for homegrown and foreign militants fighting in Afghanistan.

The strikes have been linked to a US plan to disrupt an alleged plot by extremists to launch Mumbai-style attacks in Europe.

Pakistan late Saturday announced it had decided to reopen the main land route for NATO supplies to Afghanistan and officials at the Torkham border in the northwest Khyber region said the vehicles would start leaving later Sunday.