Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships struck a militant hideout yesterday in a tribal region near the Afghan border, killing or wounding at least 25 militants, an official said.
Sayed Zaheerul Islam, the top government administrator in North Waziristan, said between 25 and 30 foreign fighters and tribal militants had been killed and more wounded in the assault on Danda Saidgai, a village about 15km north of Miranshah, the region's main town.
"It was a camp of foreign miscreants," Islam said. "The bodies and wounded are being airlifted."
But a witness at Danda Saidgai said he saw helicopters attack houses where women and children lived. Others said a backlash against the army was brewing in Miranshah.
There has been mounting anger among Pashtun tribes over the conduct of the war on terrorism which has resulted in Pakistani deaths and occasionally violations of Pakistani territory like the US airstrike on the Bajaur tribal agency that killed 18 people in early January.
The latest Pakistani military operation came hours before US President George W. Bush made a stop in Afghanistan at the start of trip that will also take him to India and Pakistan.
US and Afghan forces along the border are regularly harried by Taliban insurgents, Central Asian Islamist militants and the remnants of al-Qaeda, while Osama bin Laden is widely believed to be hiding somewhere in Pakistan.
Pakistan often comes under pressure to take more forcible action, although it has deployed 80,000 troops in border areas.
The operation in North Waziristan was launched after the army received intelligence from the Afghan side of the border that a party of militants had returned to Pakistan from the Afghan province of Khost, according to Islam.
He said helicopter gunships struck first and ground troops then closed in on the hideout close to the border.
An ammunition dump at the base was also hit and explosions could be heard in Miranshah.
A reporter in Miranshah later heard firing after hundreds of tribesmen, some armed with automatic weapons and rockets, headed out towards Danda Saidgai, angered by talk of casualties among villagers.
"We are hearing explosions and rockets and Kalashnikov fire. It happens with gaps of four to five minutes," he said.
Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said the assault had targeted a compound where foreign militants were hiding.
But he was unable to give casualty figures or say whether there were any high value targets present.
"The security forces have struck and knocked out this compound early this morning," Sultan said from the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
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