Islamabad, July 17 (DPA) A suspected US missile strike killed at least six people in northwest Pakistan while two soldiers and an equal number of Taliban extremists died in ongoing fighting in the region, officials said on Friday.

A pilotless US drone aircraft fired two Hellfire guided missiles on two residential compounds used by the Taliban in Gariwam village in the tribal district of North Waziristan, which borders Afghanistan.

'Our local informers say six Taliban died in the attack while several people were injured in the attack,' said an intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Taliban militants surrounded the area soon after the attack and started retrieving the dead bodies out of the rubble of the houses.

The US has carried out more than 40 strikes in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt from where fighters from the Taliban and Al Qaeda terrorist network regularly conduct cross-border raids on NATO-led international forces in Afghanistan.

North Waziristan is a stronghold of local Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur and Afghan commander Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is believed to be involved in several deadly attacks in Afghanistan, including an attempt on the life of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.