ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — At least 15 people suspected of beingTaliban militants were killed by an American drone strike late Friday in northwestern Pakistan, according to a Pakistani intelligence official and local residents.
The strike, the first since Pakistan reopened NATO supply routes this week, took place in the village of Zoi Narai of the Datta Khel subdivision, the third-largest town in North Waziristan. A drone fired four missiles at a compound owned by a Taliban commander named Rahimullah, said a local resident who was reached by telephone.
The commander, who apparently was not present at the time of the strike, is thought to be a close aide of a local warlord, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who controls a vast part of North Waziristan, a restive tribal region used as a haven by many local and foreign militants.
Mr. Rahimullah, who uses one name, helps recruit militants to take part in offensives against Western troops across the border in Afghanistan, according to local residents.
A Pakistani intelligence official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that all of those killed by the drone’s missiles were loyalists of Mr. Bahadur.
Local residents said that soon after the strike Taliban militants cordoned off the area around the compound and searched for bodies in the debris.
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