Fighting in Pak tribal belt kills 23 Taliban

Afp, Peshawar

Fighting in Pakistan's lawless tribal belt killed 23 Taliban militants and destroyed an oil tanker supplying Nato forces based across the border in Afghanistan, officials said yesterday.

The deadliest clashes involved a village militia, officials said, reflecting the state's increasing reliance on local tribesmen to battle Islamist radicals allegedly plotting attacks against targets in this region and in the West.

The worst violence occurred Monday and overnight in the village of Anbar in Mohmand district, 15 kilometres (nine miles) southwest of Khar, the main town of the neighbouring Bajaur district -- another Islamist stronghold.

"According to reports received here, a lashkar (traditional tribal militia) killed 23 militants and several others were wounded," local administration official Asad Ali Khan told AFP.

Administration official Mohammad Rasul Khan said three villagers were missing after the clashes between a 150-strong village force and militants.

Intelligence and security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed the fighting and the death toll.

Hundreds of Islamist fighters are believed to have fled Afghanistan into Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas to carve out safe havens after the US-led invasion toppled the hardline Taliban regime in Kabul in late 2001.

Pakistan is encouraging locals to organise lashkars against militants in several northwestern regions, as they widen the fight against extremists blamed for bomb attacks that have killed about 2,000 people in two years.

In the infamous Khyber region, militants ambushed a tanker carrying fuel for Nato forces in Afghanistan and an ensuing gunfight killed two civilians, said local administration official Rehan Gul Khattak.

The attack took place near the town of Landi Kotal on the main highway, which links Pakistan to landlocked Afghanistan.