Gunmen captured one of the tribesmen, who had been supplying food to US troops in Afghanistan, and killed him in the town of Khar Qamar in the restive North Waziristan region on Sunday, a security official told AFP.

“They beheaded the man and fled in his vehicle,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “He was well known as someone who supplied food to the Americans.”

Residents also found the headless body of a man in Madhakhel, another town in the region where Pakistani forces have been battling Taleban fugitives and Al-Qaeda linked militants, the official added.

A note found near the body claimed the slain man was a US spy. ”All those working as US spies will face the same fate,” the official quoted the note as saying.

A top Al-Qaeda operative indicted for the 1998 US embassy bombings in Africa was the target of a Pakistani military strike in North Waziristan on Wednesday and is believed to have been killed, a security official said last week.

Egyptian-born explosives expert Abdul Rahman Al-Muhajir is thought to have died along with seven other militants, the official said.

Pakistan has deployed 80,000 troops on the porous border to hunt militants who sneaked into the rugged tribal terrain after Afghanistan’s hardline Taleban regime was toppled by US-led forces following the September 11, 2001 attacks.