WANA/MIRANSHAH (Agencies) - US missiles struck two deadly blows Friday, killing 37 people, including foreign militants and a key Al-Qaeda operative, and injuring a key Taliban commander on Friday in two districts of tribal region bordering Afghanistan, security officials said. The two strikes within a few hours were the latest in series of attacks that have raised tensions between Washington and Islamabad. In the first deadly attack, the US spy drones fired two missiles that destroyed a vehicle and a house in North Waziristan Agency and killed at least 25 mainly Arab militants, security officials said. Two missiles were involved in the strike west of Mir Ali, a town in the troubled North Waziristan tribal region that is believed to be a hub of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, they said. "A US pilotless aircraft fired two guided missiles on the house of a person named Amanullah (Dawar) in the village of Asori in the Mir Ali sub-district of North Waziristan," said an intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity. The house was demolished and caught fire. People were trying to pull out the dead and the injured from the rubble but the fire was hampered their efforts, the official added. "An Al-Qaeda operative, Abu Akash (Al-Iraqi), who was of Iraqi origin, and his four colleagues were believed to be among the 20 to 25 dead," he said. Officials said they were still seeking confirmation about death of al-Iraqi. The first missile hit a four-wheel drive vehicle carrying Akash and his comrades just as it was entering the compound, which was targeted by another strike seconds later. It was not immediately clear whether the house or the vehicle, a pick-up truck, was blown up first, officials said. According to another intelligence official, who also declined to be named, Akash was tasked by Al-Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan with convincing the local Taliban to avoid conflict with Pakistani security forces. "He was roaming the area talking to various Taliban leaders for the last two months and telling them that their strategy was harming the Islamist cause in Afghanistan," he said. He was known locally as Abdullah and officials said that while he was not part of the top Al-Qaeda hierarchy he played an important role as a financial "lynchpin". Separately, another suspected US drone fired two missiles on a house in neighbouring South Waziristan district, killing 12 suspected militants, including foreigners, a senior security official said. "The missiles demolished the house of a local tribesman Haroon Wazir in Doug village," a local security official said. Officials said top Taliban commander Mullah Nazir was wounded in the strike. "Nazir sustained injuries and was rushed to a hospital by Taliban. We are not sure about the seriousness of injuries to him," a top security official told AFP. "In the two strikes the majority of those killed were Al-Qaeda operatives and some Taliban local commanders." Local administration official Mowaz Khan also confirmed Nazir, who leads the Pakistani Taliban faction accused by the United States of sending fighters across the border, was wounded in the attack. "There were two missiles fired at a militant hideout in an area just outside Wana," the main town in South Waziristan district, the official said. The district borders North Waziristan, where the earlier missile strike was carried out, the security official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP. He confirmed 12 militants were killed in the strike, including "foreigners", a term officials use to describe Al-Qaeda. The death toll had originally been put at seven but was later updated. "Now we have the information from the area that 12 militants were killed in the strike," the official said. According to Arab TV Qari, Tahir Yuldashev, an Al-Qaeda commander and leader of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, was the target of the attack. Three US drones were seen in the sky at the time of the attack, sources said.