Attacks on army posts continue in tribal areas

Peshawar: Militants launched a series of attacks on security forces near the Afghan border on Friday and six gunmen and a suicide bomber were killed, security officials said.

Violence has intensified sharply in northwest Pakistan since last month when a 10-month-old peace deal with militants broke down in the North Waziristan region and government forces stormed a radical mosque in the capital, Islamabad.

In the latest incident, militants attacked a security post near the the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan, said military spokesman, Major-General Waheed Arshad.

Defeated

"In retaliation, two of them were killed and two were captured."

One of the dead was an Uzbek and one of those captured was an Arab, Arshad said.

Many Al Qaida and Taliban members took refuge in Waziristan and other remote, rugged regions on the Pakistani side of the Afghan border after US and Afghan opposition forces defeated the Taliban government in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Earlier, militants attacked two security posts before dawn in the Tiarza area, about 20km north of Wana, the main town in the South Waziristan region, security officials in the area said.

The security forces suffered no casualties and killed four of the militants, they said.

Separately, in the nearby town of Tank, a suicide bomber rammed a jeep into a military vehicle, killing himself and wounding three soldiers.

Hotbeds

Both South and North Waziristan are hotbeds of support for Taliban and Al Qaida militants, who fled to the lawless region after US-led troops toppled the Taliban government in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Pakistan has battled the militants and tried to isolate foreign Al Qaida members with deals aimed at strengthening traditional ethnic Pashtun tribal power structures.

Clashes

The military said on Thursday that 10 militants and four soldiers were killed in clashes in Waziristan. Arshad said five soldiers wounded in one of the clashes died later.

More than 200 people, most soldiers and policemen, have been killed in a wave of attacks in the northwest since last month.