50 militants killed in fighting along Pakistan border

Pakistani troops yesterday killed up to 50 militants, including foreign fighters, near the troubled Afghan border amid an upsurge in Taliban-inspired bloodshed, security officials said.
More than 30 rebels died in the Bajaur tribal district, a hub of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, where government forces have for three weeks been conducting an extensive operation to destroy their hideouts.
"Security forces killed 25-30 militants, including some important commanders and foreigners in Bajaur's Raghan region," a security official told AFP.
In another clash, Pakistani helicopter gunships pounded militant hideouts on Wednesday in a different part of Bajaur bordering Afghanistan, killing eight rebels and wounding 12 others, a separate security official said.
Pakistani forces moved into Bajaur earlier this month.
Pakistan's fragile coalition government, which pushed US ally Pervez Musharraf to resign as president on August 18 in the face of impeachment charges, is under heavy international pressure to tackle the militancy.
Violence linked to the country's role in the "war on terror" has killed nearly 1,200 people in suicide and bomb attacks across Pakistan in the past year.
Earlier in a statement, the army said that 11 militants were killed in a gunbattle that broke out after a military checkpost came under rebel attack in the restive South Waziristan tribal region.
"Around 75-100 militants attacked a checkpost on the night of August 26-27. Security forces effectively repulsed the attack. Reportedly 11 militants were killed and 15-20 others injured," the statement said.
Pakistan's lawless tribal regions have been wracked by violence since hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels fled there after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.
The military operation in Bajaur has left more than 500 people dead and 260,000 displaced.
US and Afghan officials say the rebels have sanctuaries in the rugged tribal border regions of Pakistan that they use to train, regroup and launch attacks on international troops in Afghanistan.
Separately, Pakistani helicopter gunships pounded militant hideouts yesterday in the troubled Bajaur tribal region near the Afghan border, killing eight rebels.
Pakistani forces moved into Bajaur, a hub of Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, earlier this month.