Twenty-five killed as rival factions clash in Pakistan

PAKISTAN: Gunmen loyal to rival pro-Taliban clerics fought street battles in Pakistan's tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, leaving at least 25 people dead, officials said Tuesday.

The clashes erupted late Monday after supporters of a Pakistani preacher tried to knock down a house which belonged to an Afghan Islamic leader's faction, a tribal areas spokesman told AFP.

The fighting with automatic weapons near the remote town of Bara in Khyber district follows about a year of tensions during which the two mullahs have used illegal private FM radio stations to criticise each other.

Spokesman Shah Zaman said five of Pakistani cleric Mufti Munir Shakir's men were shot dead late Monday when they attempted to demolish the Afghan clan's house.

In retaliation, Shakir's men attacked tribesmen of Afghan rival Pir Saifur Rehman at around 2:00 am (2100 GMT) on Tuesday, killing 18 of them, Zaman said.

Another two of Shakir's men injured in the shooting later died, a local administration official said on condition of anonymity.

The Pakistani cleric's group also took hostage an unspecified number of women and children, the official said. The situation was tense in the area and the local administration was trying to end fighting through a jirga, or tribal assembly, Zaman said.

Both clerics are supporters of Afghanistan's former Taliban regime, many members of which fled across the border to Pakistan's tribal areas after the fundamentalist movement was ousted by a US-led invasion in late 2001.

Tensions are already high in the border region following major clashes earlier this month between troops and pro-Taliban militants in the North Waziristan tribal area, which have left more than 200 insurgents dead.

Bara,Tuesday AFP