Tribal town under curfew after battle

PAKISTAN: Troops enforced a tense curfew in a Pakistani tribal town on Tuesday amid efforts to end three days of fierce fighting in which some 120 pro-Taliban rebels were killed, officials said.

Tribesmen in communication with the militants late Monday asked officials for a ceasefire following the bloody clashes in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan tribal area bordering Afghanistan.

The officials tentatively agreed to hold a meeting if the insurgents stopped firing but there was still no word on the progress of the negotiations or if the army had agreed to call off its operations. Troops have seized control of the main bazaar and key government buildings but terrified families continued to flee the badly damaged town as darkness fell on Monday, fearing more violence.

They were the worst clashes in the mountainous tribal belt since the fundamentalist Taliban regime in Afghanistan fell in late 2001 and many fighters fled across the border.

Residents said 12 people who died in clashes were buried on Monday in Mirali village near Miranshah.

Miranshah, Tuesday (AFP)