PESHAWAR: A suspected US drone aircraft fired a missile at a vehicle carrying Taliban in Pakistan's South Waziristan region on Sunday, killing three militants, a tribal leader and an intelligence official said.

'The missile destroyed the vehicle and I saw three bodies lying next to it,' ethnic Pashtun tribal leader Habibullah Mehsud told Reuters by telephone from the region on the Afghan border.

The strike occurred South Waziristan’s Laddah area, about 60 km north of the region's main town of Wana.

A government official in the region confirmed the attack, saying drones had been flying over South Waziristan since early in the morning.