US drone kills 20 militants in Pakistan

American-fired missiles killed 20 Islamist militants in northwest Pakistan on Wednesday, most of them members of a powerful insurgent network fighting the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, Pakistani intelligence officials said, AP reported.

Two missiles slammed into a house close to the town of Miran Shah in North Waziristan, a militant hotspot that lies just across the border from Afghanistan, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

They said 14 of the dead were Afghan militants belonging to the Haqqani network, a Taliban-linked militant faction fighting the U.S. in Afghanistan.

Six were Pakistani militants supporting the group, which America regards as one of its deadliest foes in Afghanistan, they said.

It was not possible to independently confirm the officials' account of the attack because the region is too dangerous for independent reporting.

Locals and rights groups say civilians are regularly killed in the drone strikes. There are never public investigations into those claims.