A brother of Al-Qaeda-linked warlord Sirajuddin Haqqani, whose network is fighting in Afghanistan, has been killed in a US missile attack in Pakistan, officials said Friday.

The death of Mohammed Haqqani, who was involved in the Afghan network, in an attack thought to have been targeting his brother will be a symbolic blow to the Haqqani leadership and a further boost for the controversial US drone war.

He died when a US plane fired two missiles into a compound and vehicle on Thursday in the Dandey Darpa Khel area of North Waziristan, a Haqqani bastion in the lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border, a Pakistani official said.

His brother Sirajuddin now commands the Haqqani network, which is affiliated to the Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda, taking over from his elderly father, the well-known Soviet resistance commander Jalaluddin Haqqani.

"Mohammed Haqqani, son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, was killed in yesterday's attack along with two foreign operatives and a local tribesman," the senior Pakistani security official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"Mohammed was not actively involved in the movement but his place was used as a hideout for Arab foreign militants," the official added.

A source affiliated to the Haqqani network said only that: "yesterday the attack targeted the family of Jalaluddin Haqqani".

Haqqani was killed one day after Pakistan confirmed the arrest of Afghan Taliban second-in-command Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, which analysts said could signal a new phase in Islamabad's often-prickly relationship with the US.

The third son of Jalaluddin, Mohammad was a bearded young man in his late 20s, said an AFP reporter who met him earlier.

Another Pakistani intelligence official confirmed he was fatally wounded in Thursday's drone strike.

Two other Afghans attached to the Haqqani network were also killed in the same attack, a local intelligence official said.

"It is a big loss for the family and for the Taliban. We will take revenge for his death on US and NATO forces in Afghanistan," said a Taliban activist who gave his name as Nek Daraz in Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan.

Officials in Washington have hailed the drone campaign for eliminating a number of high-value targets in terrain classified as an intelligence black hole and which Al-Qaeda has turned into its global headquarters.

The covert US drone war against Al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders has focused increasingly on North Waziristan, a bastion of multiple militant groups, since a December 30 suicide attack killed seven CIA employees in Afghanistan.

North Waziristan borders Khost province, where a Jordanian doctor turned Al-Qaeda double agent blew himself up in the deadliest attack on the US spy agency in 26 years.

The Haqqanis are known for staging attacks on US and NATO troops in Afghanistan and Washington has been pressing Islamabad to get tough on such groups that use Pakistani soil to launch strikes over the border.

Last year a drone strike on a Haqqani house killed about a dozen people, including the wife of one brother and some children.

Residents said the Haqqanis have not disclosed the time and place of Mohammed's burial, because drone aircraft are still flying overhead and there is a fear that US missiles may hit the mourners.

US officials increasingly believe that Hakimullah Mehsud, leader of the Pakistani Taliban, perished in a US attack last month.

However, there has been no official confirmation from the Pakistani government and the Pakistani Taliban insist he is alive.

His predecessor Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a similar attack in August.