A close ally of a senior militant has been killed in a suspected US drone attack in Pakistan’s tribal region, intelligence officials have revealed.

A suspected US strike killed six people tonight on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border, a lawless region believed to be a stronghold of al Qaida, two intelligence officials said.

Pakistan’s military has arrested more than 100 suspects in their five-day assault on al-Qaida militants holed up in mud fortresses along the border, the military commander in charge of the operation said today.

Pakistani attack helicopters and artillery resumed pounding hundreds of al Qaida suspects and tribesmen besieged in mud fortresses where al Qaida number two Ayman al-Zawahri is believed hiding in a Pakistani border region early today.

Pakistan’s army launched a major offensive today against suspected terrorists in a mountainous region near the Afghan border believed used by al-Qaida fugitives.