PESHAWAR, Pakistan, April 27 (Reuters) - Three suspected al Qaeda-linked militants were killed and two wounded while making bombs in a house in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region on Friday, officials said.

"They had stored explosives in the house and were preparing bombs when the explosion took place," a senior military official said.

The incident took place in Saidgai, a village 15 km (9 miles) north of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan.

The nationality of the bombmakers was not immediately known.

Many al Qaeda-linked fighters, including Uzbeks, Chechans and Arabs, fled to Pakistan's lawless tribal belt, close to the Afghan border, after U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001.

Pakistani security forces launched a series of operations in North and neighbouring South Waziristan to drive out foreign insurgents but the government then struck peace deals in the hope of marginalising them.

Tribesmen began battling the foreign fighters in South Waziristan last month, during which more than 300 foreigners and up to 40 tribal fighters were killed.

Officials say the tribesmen's campaign showed the government's strategy was working.

President Pervez Musharraf, a staunch ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, earlier this month said there were indications tribesmen in North Waziristan and Bajaur, another hotbed of support for the militants, would also turn against the foreign fighters.

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