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ISLAMABAD - Pakistani troops killed more than 50 Taliban militants after fighting off an attack on a military fort in a troubled tribal region bordering Afghanistan, security officials said Saturday.
The clash occurred on the night between Wednesday and Thursday near the town of Ladha in the rugged South Waziristan tribal district, where thousands of Pakistani troops are deployed to fight Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
"More than 50 miscreants were killed in the attack and an unknown number were also injured," a senior security official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad told AFP that militants suffered "heavy casualties in the encounter" but said he had no official figures yet.
The fighting erupted late Wednesday, just hours after thousands of armed tribesmen met at Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, to hunt down those involved in killing members of a tribal peace committee last week.
The tribesmen blame those killings on Baitullah Mehsud, a leading Taliban warlord, who has also been accused by the Pakistani government of masterminding the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last month.
Military sources said those who mounted the attack on the fort were mainly followers of Mehsud.
There was no immediate comment from local Taliban sources.
Pakistan has pushed more than 90,000 troops into the tribal belt to combat Islamic militants who fled Afghanistan after US-led forces invaded the country in 2001 in the wake of the September 11 attacks on the United States.
On Friday the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff said that Al-Qaeda's use of Pakistan's tribal areas as safe havens was a "grave concern".
Military chief Admiral Michael Mullen said the safe havens had a "significant impact" on security not only in neighbouring Afghanistan but also in Pakistan, while adding that it was up to Pakistan to address the problem directly.
Mullen's comments follow a New York Times report a week ago that said Washington was considering giving the Pentagon and the CIA new authority to conduct covert actions inside the tribal areas.
Pakistan has bristled at any such suggestion.
President Pervez Musharraf, in an interview published Friday by Singapore's Straits Times, warned that an unauthorised US incursion into Pakistani territory would be treated as an invasion.
"Nobody will come here until we ask them to come. And we haven't asked them," he said.
Mullen said: "We are mindful of this: that Pakistan is a sovereign country and certainly it's really up to President Musharraf and certainly his advisers and his military to address that problem directly."
He said he was "extremely, extremely concerned" about the safe havens in Pakistan, adding: "I think continued pressure there will have to be brought."
Mullen said Admiral William Fallon, the head of the US Central Command, had discussed the issue with Musharraf's successor as armed forces chief, General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
- AFP /ls
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