US missiles killed 18 people in Pakistan’s tribal district of South Waziristan on Monday

US missiles killed 18 people in Pakistan's tribal district of South Waziristan on Monday, destroying compounds and a vehicle in the deadliest drone strikes for months, local officials said.
  
Three strikes were reported. The first strike killed seven people in the early hours in Shalam Raghzai, 10 kilometers northwest of Wana, the district's main town. A second struck a compound in Wacha Dana, 12 kilometers northwest of Wana, killing eight, Pakistani officials said. The third hit around eight hours later in the Dray Nishtar area, which lies on the border with North, about 30 kilometers from the site of the other two raids.
 
"A US drone fired two missiles on a militant vehicle killing three rebels," a senior Pakistani security official told AFP of the third attack. Another official warned the death toll could rise. The combined toll of 18 made Monday's drone strikes the deadliest reported in Pakistan since a salvo of US missiles killed at least 35 people on March 17.