ISLAMABAD, Dec. 7-- At least five people were killed in a U.S. drone strike launched in Pakistan's northwest tribal area of North Waziristan on Sunday, reported local media.

Local Urdu TV channel Dawn said that the U.S. unmanned aircraft on Sunday morning fired two missiles at a living compound suspected of being a militant hideout in the Datta Khel area of North Waziristan, a tribal area along the Pak-Afghan border, leaving five people dead and two others injured.

The report did not mention the exact time of the strike, nor did it mention the identities of the killed and wounded.

Another local Urdu TV channel Dunya said that an al-Qaida member named Umar Farooq alias Ustad Farooq was believed to be killed in the attack.

Umar Farooq is believed to be close to the al-Qaida supreme leader for Pakistan and Afghanistan operations, said local media.

Sunday's U.S. drone strike in North Waziristan is the 20th of its kind in Pakistan in 2014. To date, at least 141 people have reportedly been killed in such strikes since the beginning of this year. Most of the killed are believed to be militants.

Despite the repeated protests lodged by the Pakistani government, the U.S. side has never stopped such strikes in Pakistan, believing it to be an effective way to wipe out the militants hiding along the Pak-Afghan border, who often launched cross-border attacks on the U.S.-led NATO troops and Afghan security forces inside Afghanistan.