The missile attack, which Pakistani officials said was carried out by a US drone, targeted a house in North Waziristan, where Washington says Islamist militants fighting 100,000 US and NATO troops in Afghanistan are hiding.

"It was a US drone attack which targeted a compound of a local tribesman, Musharraf Gul, in Norak village," a senior security official told AFP.

Another security official confirmed the attack and said "Taliban rebels were using the compound. Five militants were killed and four others wounded." Two missiles were fired from a US drone at 1:30 am (2030 GMT Wednesday), he said.

"It is not clear if there was any high-value target," the official said, adding: "We also do not know yet the identity of the militants."

Residents and security officials said Musharraf, aged between 28 and 30, was a cab driver who had fraternised with militants for more than 18 months.

"Musharraf opened fire after the missile strike in a bid to keep villagers away. He buried the bodies of militants killed in the attack with the help of fellow rebels, who are still guarding the place," said a security official.

Although Pakistan opposes US drone attacks on its soil as a violation of its sovereignty, the government's public condemnation of the strikes has subsided since a US missile killed Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud in August.

Around 63 attacks have killed more than 610 people since August 2008, fanning anti-American sentiment in nuclear-armed Pakistan, where around 2,440 people have died in a wave of militant attacks since July 2007.

The US military does not, as a rule, confirm drone attacks, but its armed forces and the Central Intelligence Agency operating in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy the pilotless drones in the region.

Thursday's strike came as Pakistan's military said 28 militants and five soldiers were killed in the latest battles of a major offensive against Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in neighbouring South Waziristan.

Around 30,000 troops backed by fighter jets and helicopter gunships went into action on October 17, vowing to crush the TTP after a surge in bombings targeted civilians and security personnel across the country.

The United Nations on Thursday stepped up calls on Pakistan to ensure safety for civilians and aid workers in the areas of conflict.

"We are very concerned that all who are involved in the military operations must take the absolute first priority to assure safety and security of the civilians," UN humanitarian coordinator Martin Mogwanja told reporters.

"It is most particularly essential that the humanitarian organisations should be provided with safe access to the areas of displacement and also to the areas, ultimately, of conflict so that we can provide the necessary assistance, protection and services to the affected population."

Since the three-pronged offensive began, the military claims to have captured a string of TTP-held towns and villages, and most of Mehsud's once-operational base of Sararogha, where an explosion killed five soldiers.

The military provides the only regular information coming from the frontlines. None of the details can be verified because communication lines are down and journalists and aid workers barred from the area.

So far, the military says 422 militants and 42 troops have been killed since the offensive began -- far fewer military losses than in previous offensives into South Waziristan that ended with controversial peace deals.

Militants on Thursday blew up a second girls' school in less than a week in the lawless district of Khyber, on the main supply line for US and NATO troops fighting in landlocked Afghanistan, local officials said.

"Militants used 25 to 30 kilograms (55 to 66 pounds) of explosives to blow up the two-storey school on the outskirts of Bara town," local administration official Farooq Khan told AFP.

Khan said the school had 26 rooms, including a science laboratory, but that the explosion gutted eight rooms.

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