Pak troops clash with militants in tribal belt

Pakistani paramilitary soldiers stand guard with machine guns in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan yesterday. Pakistani forces using helicopter gunships killed up to 20 pro-Taliban militants near the Afghan border after an attack on a security post left one soldier dead. PHOTO: AFP

The fighting erupted overnight after rebels killed a soldier at a security post in Datakhel village, near Miranshah, the main town in the restive North Waziristan tribal zone and the scene of fierce clashes earlier this month.

"Up to 20 militants were killed when security forces responded to the rocket and small arms attack on the checkpost, in which one solider was killed," top military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP.

"The militants while running away left behind a few weapons also."

Pakistan, a key ally in the US-led "war on terror", has deployed 80,000 troops along the border since 2003 to flush out Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who sneaked across from Afghanistan after the ouster of the Taliban regime in late 2001.

Sultan had no details but local and army officials said a number of foreign militants were among those who died in Friday's fighting, which started at around 2:45 am and lasted for some two hours.

"Around 20 militants, including some foreigners, were killed when security forces struck their hideout with gunship helicopters and artillery after the attack on a security post which killed one soldier and injured two others," a military official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

A local official said seven of the dead were foreign. The official added that two injured attackers were arrested.

Tribal militants linked to the Taliban briefly took control of Miranshah in the first week of March -- during a visit to Islamabad by US President George W. Bush -- in revenge for an earlier raid on a suspected al-Qaeda training camp.

Fierce clashes erupted when Pakistani forces tried to retake the town, leaving around 170 militants and five soldiers dead and forcing thousands of civilians to flee the area.

Musharraf late Thursday promised a crackdown on foreign militants, amid tensions between Afghanistan and Pakistan over allegations that Islamabad is failing to tackle Islamic militants launching cross-border raids from its territory.

"We will never tolerate foreign terrorists and extremists" hiding in the tribal region, Musharraf told a rally in the eastern city of Lahore.

"These foreign militants are indulging in acts of terrorism not only in Pakistan but elsewhere in the world also," he said. "I warn them to leave Pakistan, failing which we will eliminate them."

Meanwhile Pakistan on Thursday lodged a "strong protest" with Afghanistan over the killing by Afghan troops this week of 16 people who it says were civilians heading to a festival.

Kabul says it is investigating the incident, which happened across the border from Pakistan's southwestern province of Baluchistan, but an Afghan army officer has said the dead men were Taliban insurgents.