A suspected US drone aircraft fired a missile today killing three militants in northwest Pakistan, while elsewhere in the region, a bomb blast in a market killed seven people, officials said.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has ordered the military to carry out an offensive against Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and his fighters, a provincial governor said.
The United States, alarmed by deteriorating security in Afghanistan, has been using drone aircraft to attack Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters in northwestern Pakistani militant strongholds.
Pakistan, a nuclear-armed US ally, objects to the US missile strikes saying they violate its sovereignty and undermine efforts to deal with militancy because they inflame public anger and bolster militant support.
The strike today was in Laddah, in the South Waziristan region, about 60 km (40 miles) north of the region's main town of Wana, and a stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud.
A government official in the region confirmed the attack, saying drones had been flying over South Waziristan since early in the morning.
Pakistani warplanes struck another Mehsud stronghold yesterday in retaliation for the killing of an anti-Taliban cleric in a suicide bomb attack in the city of Lahore the previous day, the military said.
Today's bomb attack was in a market in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan is struggling to push back a growing Taliban insurgency and security forces have made progress in more than a month of fighting against militants in Swat.
The militants have responded with a string of bombs in towns and cities.
Mehsud has been blamed for many of the suicide attacks in Pakistan, including the assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, in December 2007.
Expectations have been rising that the military will launch an offensive against him as the army enters the final stages of its campaign in Swat.
"The military and law enforcement agencies have been ordered to carry out a full-fledged operation to eliminate these beasts and killers by using all resources," Awais Ahmed Ghani, governor of North West Frontier Province, told reporters, referring to Mehsud.
He did not say when the offensive would be launched but said Mehsud and his people had provided shelter to "anti-Pakistan forces", including many foreigners, and had been training suicide bombers.
The violence has raised fears for Pakistan's stability and for the safety of its nuclear arsenal but the offensive in Swat has reassured the United States, which needs its Muslim ally's help to defeat al Qaeda and stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan.
In the past week, the military has stepped up attacks in several parts of the northwest in what analysts see as an attempt to distract the militants and "soften up" their positions.
Residents in the Bajaur region on the Afghan border to the northeast of Waziristan said aircraft bombed militants in several villages on Sunday but there were no reports of casualties.
The fighting in Swat and other parts of the northwest has displaced about 2.5 million people and aid officials have appealed to donors to step up their help.
Rising violence has raised fears for Pakistan's stability and for the safety of its nuclear arsenal but the offensive in Swat has reassured the United States, which needs its Muslim ally's help to defeat al-Qaeda and stabilize neighboring Afghanistan.
On Thursday, the US House of Representatives approved tripling aid to Pakistan to about $1.5 billion a year for five years to help combat extremism through development. Pakistan is now the biggest recipient of US aid.
Reuters