Pakistan: Pakistani troops backed by tanks and gunships cleared militant hideouts near the Afghan border, sparking gunbattles that left eight troops and 40 rebels dead, the army said Thursday. Thirty militants were also arrested in the clashes over the last 24 hours in the South Waziristan tribal district, the hideout of an insurgent commander accused of masterminding the killing of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto. Pakistani forces launched a major operation against rebel positions following days of fighting in the barren, lawless region, which the United States has identified as a key lair of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants. "Reportedly, 40 miscreants have been killed in the last 24 hours and 30 miscreants have been apprehended, many of them injured," an army statement said. It added that eight soldiers "embraced martyrdom" while 32 others were injured in the clashes, the heaviest single-day toll in several weeks of fighting since Bhutto's assassination almost one month ago. Soldiers have cleared militants from three strongholds in Spinkai Raghazai, Nawazkot and surrounding areas of Tiarza village in the tribal area, the military said in the statement. Tanks had moved into position to protect the movement of military convoys, the statement added. Security officials said helicopter gunships were also pounding insurgent positions. Chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said the clashes occurred in areas mainly controlled by the fiercely independent Mehsud tribe. Abbas said he was not aware of the whereabouts of rebel commander Baitullah Mehsud who is based in South Waziristan's mountains, and has been blamed by the Pakistan and the US Central Intelligence Agency for Bhutto's killing. "It is not known whether he was taking part in the fighting or present in those areas," Abbas said. "We have recovered a few bodies and there will be investigations about their origin," Abbas added, saying it was not clear if any of the bodies were those of foreign fighters. The latest casualty figures could not be independently verified as the rugged area where fighting is occurring is out of bounds for journalists. But hundreds of families had fled the area and there was a severe shortage of food and other essential supplies, residents told AFP by telephone. Mehsud tribesmen have refused to seek shelter in a refugee camp set up by authorities in the nearby town of Jandola and had asked family in other districts to accommodate them, local tribesman Alam Khan said. "The Mehsuds are angry that the military is bombing innocent people and that is why they have refused to take any help," Khan said. The instability in the nuclear-armed nation ahead of crucial elections on February 18 has caused concern among Islamabad's international allies, especially in Washington. Pakistan has been wracked by violence and suicide bombings since troops crushed an uprising at a hardline mosque in Islamabad last July, and the bloodshed has escalated since Bhutto's killing on December 27. A suicide bombing late Wednesday, the fourth in Pakistan this year, killed one person at a checkpost on a highway that links the separate Khyber tribal agency with Peshawar city, in the northwest. But President Pervez Musharraf used a European tour this week to dismiss fears that the country and its nuclear warheads could slip into Al-Qaeda's hands, saying there was a "zero percent chance" of a takeover by extremists. - AFP
The Pakistani army says it killed 40 Islamic militants and arrested 30 during two days of fighting along its border with Afghanistan. The United States, meanwhile, has offered to train Pakistani security forces in their fight against the al-Qaeda-linked militants. 

The fighting took place in South Waziristan province late Wednesday and Thursday. The army says security forces backed by helicopters attacked suspected hideouts of militants led by the country's most wanted man, Baitullah Mehsud.

In recent months, bomb attacks blamed on Mehsud's followers have claimed the lives of more than four hundred people throughout the country. Most of the violence has been aimed at the security forces, but both the United States and the Pakistani government blame Mehsud for the assassination last month of the opposition leader and former prime minister, Benazir Bhutto.

The army has retaliated with raids like the one this week, and can claim some battlefield success. The military said Thursday it had cleared three districts of militants, losing eight soldiers in the fighting.

But not everyone believes this is an effective way to deal with the insurgents.

The tribal region is a traditionally lawless and conservative region, whose inhabitants have been said to have never trusted the central Pakistani government. The region is also now home to scores of Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters who fled Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion of that country in 2001.

Retired Lieutenant General Asad Durrani, the former chief of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence group, is now a noted political analyst. He says the army's increased activity in the tribal areas only exacerbates the problem.

"It increases the level of insurgency in that area and that is what has been happening for the last, about four years," said Durrani. "It is never a good thing, especially when you are using it force against your own people…This was the wrong approach."

Instead, Durrani says, the government should try to resolve the conflict through existing tribal structures, and mediation by influential figures trusted by both sides.

As fighting intensified in the region this week, Admiral William Fallon, the head of the U.S. military's Central Command, proposed that U.S. troops help train the Pakistani security forces in their fight against the militants.

Durrani said that if the government agrees, it will anger many Pakistanis.

"It will make it worse…There is hardly anything anyone can teach us…The environments are different," he said. "The approach may be generally the same, but the environments are different. So only we, and with the involvement of the people there, can resolve it. There is no special training required."

The government has not yet replied to Admiral Fallon's offer.