Islamabad, Sept. 8 : A suspected missile strike, launched allegedly by US troops in Afghanistan, has claimed the lives of at least nine people in Pakistan''s volatile North Waziristan region.

According to reports from Dera Ismail Khan, missiles from a suspected U. S. drone aircraft struck a house and seminary linked to a key Taliban commander on Monday.

Officials and witnesses were quoted as saying that the attack took place in a village in North Waziristan.

A Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said three suspected foreign militants and two children were among the dead.

The targets were linked to Jalaluddin Haqqani, a jihadi veteran who American commanders count among their most dangerous foes.

Haqqani and his son, Siraj, have been linked to attacks this year including an attempt to kill Afghan President Hamid Karzai and a bold attack on a luxury hotel in Kabul.

Haqqani network operatives plague U. S. forces in Afghanistan''s eastern Khost province with ambushes and roadside bombs.

Reports varied on casualties in Monday''s attack in northwestern Pakistan. The intelligence official said 12 people died — three suspected foreign militants, two local men, four women and three children — when several missiles hit the seminary and adjacent houses in the village of Dande Darba Khel.

Another 15 people — mostly women and children — were injured, he said, citing informers.

A second Pakistani intelligence official gave a similar account. Neither identified the victims further.

The U. S. has pushed Pakistan to crackdown on insurgents, warning that they are using pockets of the northwest as safe havens from which to plan attacks on American and NATO forces in neighboring Afghanistan. (ANI)