At least eight people were killed and various others injured in a fresh US drone attack in North Waziristan Agency. A US drone attack killed eight militants in Pakistan's northwest tribal badlands on Monday, targeting Al-Qaeda and Taliban-linked groups for the second time in 48 hours. Security officials said three US missiles struck a compound in the Khushali Toorkhel area, about 25 kilometres (15 miles) east of Miranshah, North Waziristan's main town. "The target was a militant compound belonging to followers of a local rebel commander Haleem Khan," a senior Pakistani security official told AFP, asking not to be named. "Eight militants were killed and several others sustained injuries in the strike," another security official told AFP. Security officials said most of the dead were militants from the Mehsud tribe in neighbouring South Waziristan, from which top leaders and many foot soldiers in Pakistan's main Tehreek-e-Taliban faction are drawn. Officials said that Khan, the local rebel commander, was not among the dead. He is believed to have ties to Taliban-linked Afghan warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who is reputed to control up to 2,000 fighters in the region who stage attacks over the border against foreign forces stationed in Afghanistan. The United States has significantly increased drone strikes on North Waziristan this year, the last one on Saturday killing seven militants. More than 880 people have been killed in nearly 100 drone strikes in Pakistan since August 2008, and the bombing raids fuel anti-American sentiment in Muslim Pakistan and draw public condemnation from the government. Taliban militants on Monday shot dead a pro-government tribal elder, Maulana Abdul Haleem, in Bajaur, in the far north of the tribal belt, officials said. His bullet-riddled body was dumped in the bazaar of Nawagi, a rural town some 30 kilometres (18 miles) northwest of Khar, the main town in the lawless district where Pakistani troops have been fighting since August 2008. "There was a rope around the neck of Maulana Abdul Haleem and his body had several bullet wounds and signs of torture," local administration official Irshad Khan told AFP. Haleem had been kidnapped late Sunday with four other elders, Khan said. Two security officials confirmed the incident. The killing was the latest in a string of assassinations of respected tribal elders allied to the government against Islamist extremists. Under US pressure, Pakistan last year significantly increased operations against militants in the tribal belt, which Washington has called the most dangerous region on Earth and a global headquarters of Al-Qaeda. But the military has so far appeared reluctant to launch a similar all-out assault into North Waziristan, where many insurgents have sought sanctuary.