A burst of U.S. cross-border attacks from Afghanistan has killed dozens of suspected militants since August but has drawn angry protests from Pakistan, an uneasy ally in Washington's war on terrorism facing a wave of destabilizing violence.
Saturday's strike occurred in the North Waziristan region, part of the tribal belt from where militants are supporting the growing insurgency in neighboring Afghanistan and a possible hiding place for al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden.
A Taliban spokesman said all those killed in the pre-dawn attack in the village of Ali Khel were civilians.
"None was a foreigner," Ahmedullah Ahmedi said in a written statement delivered to reporters in Miran Shah, the region's main town. Three children were injured, it said.
However, three Pakistani intelligence officials, citing reports from field agents as well as intercepted militant communications, said the believed that Rauf and an Egyptian militant were among five killed.
Two of the officials said the targeted house in the village of Ali Khel belonged to a Pakistani Taliban commander named Khaliq Noor who was known to shelter foreign fighters.
Militants quickly cordoned off the area and one of the intelligence officials cautioned that government spies in the area had not seen any of the bodies.
All the officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the matter to news media.
In London, a Foreign Office spokesman said British officials were investigating reports that Rauf had been killed but could not confirm his death.
Rauf has been on the run since December 2007, when he escaped from police escorting him back to jail after an extradition hearing at a court in Islamabad.
After his arrest in August 2006, Britain had sought his extradition, ostensibly as a suspect in the 2002 killing of his uncle there.
Rauf, who is of Pakistani origin, had allegedly been in contact with a group in Britain plotting to smuggle explosives hidden in drinks bottles onto trans-Atlantic flights.
The plot's detection prompted a major security alert at airports worldwide and increased restrictions on carry-on items. A London jury convicted three men in the case in September.
U.S. forces are suspected of having carried out about 20 missile attacks since August into northwestern Pakistan, a sharply increased pace that reflects frustration at Islamabad's efforts to tackle militants on its own soil.
