PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Four people have been killed in northwestern Pakistan in an American drone attack on a vehicle, government officials said on Friday.

The officials said missiles fired late Thursday night from a drone operated by the Central Intelligence Agency hit a moving vehicle in Datta Khel Bazar in the North Waziristan tribal region, which is a redoubt of local and foreign militants. “Four men inside the vehicle were killed,” a tribal official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The nationality of those killed was not immediately clear. The vehicle exploded after it was hit by two missiles, leaving the bodies charred and beyond recognition.

But an intelligence official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, gave a conflicting account of the strike and said that only one person was killed.

The drone strike took place at 11:30 p.m. on Thursday, according to the official of the tribal administration, who noted that it was very unusual for people to move in the volatile region at night. “You don’t find vehicles moving around so late at night in this part of the region,” the official said by telephone Friday. A local warlord and Taliban commander, Hafiz Gul Bahadur, holds sway in Datta Khel but it was not clear if the drone strike had targeted his group.