Blast kills 7 militants in Pak tribal town

Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said the militants, two of them women, were killed making detonators in a house near Miranshah, capital of the North Waziristan region.

"Some foreigners were amongst those killed, but we have no information on their origin," Sultan said.

"It seems the explosion occurred when these people were busy making an improvised explosive device for terrorist activity," chief military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP, quoting local administration officials.

Residents said the blast happened at about 1:30 am (2030 GMT Friday) in a house near Mir Ali, about 20km east of Miranshah, the main town in the rugged tribal zone of North Waziristan.

He said there were no further details on their identities or whether they were wanted militants.

The blast during the Muslim festival of Eid-ul-Fitr came days after security forces killed an Arab al-Qaeda suspect and seized another in a shootout in Quetta, capital of the southwestern province of Baluchistan.

Pakistani forces have been battling al-Qaeda-linked militants in the rugged region since last year and hundreds of militants and Pakistani soldiers have been killed in clashes there.

Many al-Qaeda militants and their Taliban allies are thought to have slipped into Pakistan after US-led forces ousted the Taliban government in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.