Pakistani villagers collected the corpses and body parts today of at least 20 people, including several suspected Arab militants as well as three children, killed by a US missile strike overnight.
A pilotless drone aircraft launched the attack late last night, targetting a tribesman's house in Mohammad Khel, intelligence officials said. The village, 30 km west of Miranshah in North Waziristan, is a known sanctuary of al Qaeda and
Taliban militants close to the Afghan border.
Villagers combed the wreckage at daybreak, looking for survivors and bodies to be buried.
"We found body parts scattered all over the place in the ruins, someone's hand, someone's leg," Bakht Ali, one of the villagers, said.
An intelligence official based in the region said a woman and three children were among those killed.
"We now have a figure of 20 dead. That includes eight residents of the house, five other locals and seven foreigners," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
The foreigners appeared to be Arabs, although their nationalities were unknown, he said.
There were no indications that any of those killed were regarded by US counterterrorism agencies as top tier al-Qaeda targets, sources said.
The News newspaper reported that the strike was carried out based on information that the foreigners had been invited to a feast by pro-Taliban tribesmen following the end of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
An army spokesman said there had been an explosion in the area, but was unable to confirm the cause.