Over 20 killed in Pak clashes
AP, Peshawar
Pakistani forces clashed with heavily armed foreign militants yesterday, killing more than 20 people, in a mountainous tribal region near the Afghan border where hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters are believed to be hiding, officials and a tribal elder said. The bloodshed follows weeks of failed efforts to get the militants in South Waziristan to surrender to authorities after an army counter-terrorism offensive in March that left 120 people dead. Brig. Mahmood Shah, chief of security for Pakistan's tribal regions, said foreigners and local tribesmen had been holed up in four fortress-like houses, about 25 miles from the Afghan frontier. He said they traded fire with paramilitary and army soldiers who had surrounded the area. Shah said about 20 foreign militants and one paramilitary soldier had been killed, and three civilians had died in the crossfire.
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