New Delhi: An intense fighting was reported between Pakistan Government troops and the Taliban and al-Qaeda terrorists.
Up to 150 Taliban and al- Qaeda terrorists and 50 Pakistani government troops have been killed in three days of intense fighting. Another 20 security forces have been wounded... Another 12 to 15 soldiers remain missing.
The clashes have forced thousands to flee from Mir Ali, a town in lawless North Waziristan district that President Pervez Musharraf has previously pinpointed as a den of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Residents said dozens of people including women and children were killed in the latest air strikes in the rugged region bordering Afghanistan, but security officials insisted the dead were all Islamist fighters.
The unrest puts extra pressure on military ruler Musharraf -- a key ally in the US-led "war on terror" -- as he waits for the Supreme Court to legitimise his victory in Saturday's presidential election.
Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said at least 150 terrorists and 45 soldiers had been killed in battles that first erupted on Sunday after pro-Taliban rebels ambushed an army convoy.
Another two troops died in a roadside bombing on Tuesday, a statement said.
"There were militant hideouts in the area near Mir Ali, aircraft targeted these hideouts on Tuesday but I don't have the number of casualties from that," Arshad said.
Security officials in the northwestern city of Peshawar said another 50 terrorists were killed in Tuesday's airstrikes and a similar number were injured.
Residents, however, said around a dozen bombs dropped by two fighter jets exploded in the main bazaar in Khedar Khel, a village near Mir Ali, destroying several houses.
"Some 50 people including women and children have died in the bombing," resident Noor Mohammad, 45, said.
"The number of injured is even more."
The use of warplanes against terrorists who fled into the region after the fall of Afghanistan's Taliban regime six years ago is rare, with the army usually relying on helicopter gunships.
Most of the 50,000 inhabitants of Mir Ali had fled after more than 50 houses were damaged and the army placed the town under virtual curfew, residents said.
"Our homes have been damaged severely, most of the families have migrated to relatives' homes in neighbouring towns," tribesman Faridullah Khan said as military helicopters circled overhead.
Desperate locals used mosque loudspeakers to beg the military not to fire at their homes, tribal elder Malik Iqbal Khan said.
Army spokesman Arshad said that tribal elders had called a council or jirga involving tribesmen, militant representatives and the local administration in a bid to halt the violence.
But the military indicated that it was in no mood to compromise.
"The army is fighting well-trained militants. There are linkages with Afghanistan. Many of them are getting money and weapons from across the border," Arshad said.
A Pakistani security official said the terrorists involved had the "latest weaponry and lots of money" from across the porous border.
They were also "in contact with members of a hostile country in Afghanistan" -- an apparent reference to Pakistan's long-term nuclear-armed rival India, its neighbour on the eastern side, the official added.
Pakistan has become increasingly convinced that India has a hand in a wave of violence that erupted after Pakistani security forces besieged and then raided the Al-Qaeda-linked Red Mosque in Islamabad in July.
Bin Laden has also urged terrorists to avenge the storming of the mosque that killed about 100 people.
In the latest violence, 20 people were injured when a bomb exploded in a music shop in Peshawar on Tuesday, police said.
The fighting in the last three days is some of the bloodiest since Musharraf pushed thousands of troops into the tribal zone. About 90,000 troops are currently in the region.
Pro-Taliban terrorists are also holding more than 200 Pakistani soldiers in nearby South Waziristan district since abducting them in late August.
(With agency inputs)
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