Miran Shah, Pakistan: Shelling resumed early on Wednesday in an area of northwest Pakistan where battles between troops and militants have killed up to 250 people and sent thousands more fleeing, witnesses said.
The five days of clashes in the North Waziristan region near the Afghan border are the deadliest since Pakistan threw its support behind the US-led war on terror in 2001.
An Associated Press reporter in Miran Shah, the region's main town, heard a burst of artillery or mortar fire before dawn on Wednesday. Farid Ullah, a resident of nearby Mir Ali, said the shells had hit houses in that town.
"I have not dared to go outside, so I don't know if there anyone was hurt," Ullah said by telephone.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said that while artillery may have been fired, no major incidents took place overnight.
On Tuesday, residents said Pakistani aircraft bombed the nearby village of Epi, killing dozens of militants and civilians and injuring many more, including shoppers in a packed bazaar.
The army said the planes were targeting militant hideouts near Mir Ali and that local tribesmen reported about 50 militants were killed.
Arshad said Tuesday that the air strikes might have killed some civilians, but he had no exact numbers.
The army has reported the deaths of up to 200 militants and 47 troops.
A bomb destroyed ten shops selling music discs _ frowned on by fundamentalists _ in the town of Kohat before dawn on Wednesday, police said. No one was hurt. A similar attack
in the city of Peshawar on Tuesday wounded a dozen people.
Pakistan struck a controversial cease-fire deal with militants in North Waziristan last year. US officials criticized the pact, claiming it provided a safe haven for Al Qaida and a rear base for Taliban guerrillas fighting NATO troops in Afghanistan.
