Pakistan kills 17 militants near Afghan border-TV

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistan security forces
have killed 17 suspected foreign militants in a tribal region
near the Afghan border, the private Geo television and
witnesses said on Sunday.

Quoting unnamed government sources, Geo said a Pakistani
soldier was also killed in the offensive on Saturday night.

Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan told
Reuters that an incident had taken place in the North
Waziristan tribal region and details were being gathered.

Local residents said troops had cordoned off an area near
Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, 300 km (180
miles) southwest of the Pakistani capital Islamabad, where the
incident took place.

“I have seen some body limbs and blood scattered on earth,”
a Reuters reporter at the scene said.

The incident occurred two days after U.S. forces based in
Afghanistan killed 24 suspected al Qaeda militants and their
Taliban allies inside Pakistan in the same region.

Tension has been building for months in North Waziristan
since the army completed a string of offensives against al
Qaeda militants in neighboring South Waziristan.

Major-General Akram Sahi, military commander in North
Waziristan, this week ordered tribesmen to hand over foreign
militants hiding in the region or face an imminent offensive.

A senior U.S. administration official in Washington on
Thursday said the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan
needed to squeeze insurgents along the rugged border where al
Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden might be hiding.