Agence France-Presse,
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan: Pakistani troops backed by tanks and gunships cleared militant hideouts near the Afghan border amid fierce fighting that left eight troops and 40 rebels dead, the army said Thursday.
Thirty militants have also been arrested during clashes over the past 24 hours in the South Waziristan tribal district, the hideout of an Islamist commander accused of masterminding the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.
Pakistani forces have launched a major operation against extremist positions following days of gunbattles in the barren region, which the United States has identified as a key lair of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
“Reportedly, 40 miscreants have been killed in the last 24 hours and 30 miscreants have been apprehended, many of them injured,” an army statement said.
Eight soldiers “embraced martyrdom” while 32 others were injured in the clashes, it said, the heaviest single-day toll in several weeks of fighting since Bhutto's assassination almost one month ago.
Soldiers have cleared militants from strongholds in Spinkai Raghazai, Nawazkot and areas surrounding Tiarza village in the tribal zone, the statement said.
Tanks had moved in to protect the movement of army convoys, it said, one of the first times they have been used in the tribal belt since 2001. Security officials said helicopters were also pounding insurgent positions.
Chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the clashes occurred in areas mainly controlled by the fiercely independent Mehsud tribe.
Abbas said he was not aware of the whereabouts of rebel commander Baitullah Mehsud who is based in South Waziristan's mountains, and has been blamed by Pakistan and the US Central Intelligence Agency for Bhutto's killing.
“It is not known whether he was taking part in the fighting or present in those areas,” Abbas told AFP.
The latest casualty figures could not be independently verified as the rugged area where fighting is occurring is out of bounds for journalists.
But hundreds of families had fled the area and there was a severe shortage of food and other essential supplies, residents told AFP by telephone.
Mehsud tribesmen have refused to seek shelter in a refugee camp set up by authorities in the nearby town of Jandola and had asked family in other districts to accommodate them, local tribesman Alam Khan said.
“The Mehsuds are angry that the military is bombing innocent people and that is why they have refused to take any help,” Khan said.
Another resident, Akbar Ali, said he was one of only a handful of people staying to protect their houses, while all women and children had fled on foot because transport had stopped.
“Only one or two men are remaining in the houses to guard their belongings. A shell hit part of my house late Wednesday but I survived,” Ali said.
The instability in the nuclear-armed nation ahead of crucial elections on February 18 has caused concern among Islamabad's international allies, especially in Washington.
Pakistan has been wracked by violence and suicide bombings since troops crushed an uprising at a hardline mosque in Islamabad last July, and the bloodshed has escalated since Bhutto's killing on December 27.
Police on Thursday said they had defused a roadside bomb just minutes before another key opposition figure, Nawaz Sharif, was due to pass the spot in the northwestern city of Peshawar, which adjoins the tribal belt.
But President Pervez Musharraf used a European tour this week to dismiss fears that the country and its nuclear warheads could slip into Al-Qaeda's hands.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, Musharraf vowed to crack down on any attempt to disrupt the elections and insisted the polls would be “free and fair”.
