No al-Qaida fighters reported dead in US airstrike

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan - The latest in a barrage of suspected U.S. missile strikes in Pakistan's northwest killed five people, but none was believed to be a foreign al-Qaida fighter, officials said Sunday.
Two drone aircraft were seen above the town of Miran Shah in the North Waziristan tribal region minutes before missiles hit a house near a matchbox factory Saturday, two intelligence officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media. They said reports from local informants said there were no foreigners among the dead.

Meanwhile, clashes with security forces reportedly killed 52 suspected militants in two neighboring tribal regions, officials said. The accounts were impossible to verify in the remote and dangeorus area.

Pakistan's Frontier Corps in a vague, two-sentence press release Sunday said its paramilitary troops had clashed with militants in Orakzai, killing 27 of the alleged insurgents including two "commanders." The statement also said a dozen of the dead were alleged suicide bombers.