At least 18 people including women and children died when helicopters launched missiles on a village in Pakistan's troubled tribal region bordering Afghanistan yesterday, residents said.

The incident in Mamund town in Bajur tribal zone comes days after Pakistan protested to the US military in Afghanistan over the deaths of another eight people in cross-border firing. Residents said a pair of helicopters launched missiles and a bomb early yesterday, destroying three houses including that of Gul Zaman, member of an outlawed Islamic group.

"Two helicopters fired five missiles and dropped a bomb and the attack demolished three houses. Among the dead were five women, five children and eight men," resident Haji Bakhtullah said. Pakistani military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said that authorities had not confirmed the casualty toll in Bajur's Mamund town because the area is very remote.

No one claimed responsibility for the latest attack but locals speculated that it was carried out by the US military.

The US-led coalition in Afghanistan was not immediately available for comment. Zaman belonged to a group called Tehreek Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammadi which was outlawed by President Pervez Musharraf in January 2002.

PHOTO CAPTION

Shah Zaman, who lost three of his children, stands with his daughters Saira, 8, and Rashida, 2, before the rubble of his razed house, Friday, Jan 13, 2006, after it was destroyed by in an apparent pre-dawn air strike that killed at least 17 people in the remote Pakistani tribal village of Damadola. (AP)