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PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN - A SUSPECTED US missile strike in Pakistan's tribal belt on Monday killed six people, including three Arab militants, as the country's premier readied to meet President George W. Bush.
Three missiles struck a house attached to a mosque in the South Waziristan tribal district, an area bordering Afghanistan that is viewed by Washington as a haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists, officials said.
'Six people are dead and three others injured after three missiles hit a house in Azam Warsak (village),' a senior security official said. He said those killed were three 'suspected Arab militants and three young boys'.
Residents said they heard US aircraft and pilotless Predator drones flying above the area before and after the strike, adding that there had been alarm over similar flights throughout the weekend.
Pakistani officials said the missiles apparently came from US-led coalition troops deployed over the border, which lies some 20 kilometres west of Azam Warsak.
'This has been done by coalition forces, we did not do it,' another Pakistani security official said on condition of anonymity.
The identities of those killed were not known. A group of Arabs, believed to be Egyptians, had rented a compound containing the house and the madrassa from a local tribesman, Malik Salat, residents said.
Dozens of Arab Al-Qaeda operatives are believed to be hiding in the tribal belt, including Osama bin Laden, blamed for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
Both the US-led coalition and a separate NATO force in Afghanistan said they were not involved in the missile strike. However, the US Central Intelligence Agency is also known to operate drones in the region.
Pakistan has protested over a wave of missile strikes attributed to US-led forces in Afghanistan in recent months that have killed dozens of local people.
The chairman of Pakistan's joint chiefs of staff, General Tariq Majid, on Monday warned the visiting head of US Central Command, Lieutenant General Martin Dempsey, that repeated strikes were 'detrimental to bilateral relations,' an army statement said.
The latest killings took place hours before scheduled talks between Bush and Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani at the White House that were expected to focus on Islamabad's commitment to the 'war on terror'.
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