Islamabad - At least five people were killed and six wounded when a US drone aircraft attacked a house in Pakistan's border area near Afghanistan, officials said Wednesday.

A security official said the pilotless drone fired two missiles at a house in a village near the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan at about midnight on Tuesday.

The house, which belonged to a person identified by only his first name Nawab, was completely demolished by the strike. Some unconfirmed reports said the US drone had come under fire from the building.

North Waziristan is regarded a haven for Taliban militants and members of the al-Qaeda terrorism network. It has seen several US aerial strikes in the recent months, causing tension between the United States and Pakistan.

The forces of the two countries have exchanged fire on more than one occasion along Afghan border. On Thursday Pakistani border troops fired warning shots when two US army helicopters allegedly violated country's territory. On May 23, a US drone crashed in South Waziristan. Reportedly, it was shot down by the tribesmen and troops.

Separately, Pakistan's Urdu-language GEO TV and American CNN news reported that Baitullah Mehsud, leader of Pakistan's Taliban militants, had died from illness.

Mehsud, believed to be in his 30s, suffered from high blood pressure and kidney disease, the GEO TV television said.

The leader of a united front of smaller Taliban groups called the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or Pakistan Taliban Movement, Mehsud was blamed for the murder of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December by Pakistan's former government, a claim he reportedly denied.

He has also been accused of ordering dozens of suicide attacks across the country over the last one and half years.

Mehsud's spokesman, Maulvi Omar, was not available for comment but a local Taliban leader denied the death of the ethnic Pashtun guerilla commander, who was based in South Waziristan, a militant stronghold on the border with Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, one security officer was killed in another tribal district, Orakzai Agency, when dozens of militants attacked two security check posts and blew them up.