Seven killed in Pakistan’s restive tribal belt

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) – Five people were killed in
a land mine blast and two pro-Taliban militants died in a clash
with security forces in Pakistan’s restive tribal region on
Monday, officials said.

The incidents occured in the North Waziristan tribal
region, where around 200 tribesmen were killed in clashes with
security forces last month. They were answering a call to arms
by militant Muslim clerics following a special forces assault
on an al Qaeda camp.

The land mine victims were traveling in a vehicle in
Dattakhel area near North Waziristan’s main town of Miranshah
when it struck a land mine.

“Five people were killed on the spot, while the sixth is in
critical condition,” said an intelligence official.

In the second incident, two pro-Taliban militants were
killed after militants attacked a paramilitary patrol in the
town of Mir Ali. The militants had hurled hand grenades on the
troops, wounding three of them, another intelligence official
said.

The incidents took place a day after one soldier was killed
and 10 people wounded in clashes in the region, which is
infested with al Qaeda and Taliban fighters and their local
sympathisers.

President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S.-led war
on terrorism, last month warned foreign militants hiding in the
tribal region to leave Pakistan or face annihilation.

A large number of al Qaeda remnants and Taliban fled to
Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt after U.S.-led forces
toppled the radical Taliban regime in Afghanistan following the
September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York.