Army: 20 killed in fighting in Pakistani tribal region

PAKISTAN: Pakistani security forces supported by helicopter gunships killed 16 suspected Islamic militants Wednesday after a military base near the Afghan border came under rocket attack in fighting that also left four soldiers dead, the army said.

Visiting senior U.S. diplomat Richard Boucher said Pakistan and Afghanistan needed to cooperate to defeat the "common enemy" of the Taliban and extremists at their shared frontier.

The fighting in North Waziristan follows a spree of bloody clashes between pro-Taliban militants and Pakistani troops here, realizing fears that local Pashtun tribesmen are increasing their resistance to the government's presence in the lawless region.

Clashes erupted after a military base came under rocket attack late Tuesday. Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said that security forces launched an operation against the attackers on Wednesday in the Shawal area, supported by helicopter gunships.

Sixteen militants had been killed, although only eight bodies had been recovered as the rest were buried or carried away by their comrades. Nineteen others were arrested. Security forces also seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition in search operations of militant hideouts, Sultan said. Four soldiers died.

Sultan refused to identify the militants who surrendered or give their nationalities.

Military officials have said Arab, Central Asian and Afghan fighters are present in the region, but increasingly it's local tribesmen who are battling against the government. Last month, the army reported that scores of foreign and local militants were killed in fighting with security forces. The militants are often referred to in Pakistan as "local Taliban," reflecting their fundamentalist beliefs and sympathies with the hardline militia in Afghanistan.

Boucher, U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia who visited Afghanistan earlier in the week, met Wednesday with Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf. He later told reporters in Islamabad that Pakistan and Afghanistan faced a mutual threat from Islamic extremists.

"There's a common enemy in the form of the Taliban and extremists. There's a common problem in terms of extending the control of government into border areas," he said. "The only way to stop this is to have cooperation."

Miran Shah, Thursday AP