Twenty dead in fierce fighting in Pakistan

Pakistani forces and suspected Islamic militants battled for a second day yesterday near the Afghan border, leaving four soldiers and 16 fighters dead, an army spokesman said.

Another militants -- some of them surrendering and laying down their weapons -- were captured in the fighting in the North Waziristan tribal region, spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said.

Eight were killed overnight after troops retaliated to a rocket attack by the fighters on a military base, and the eight others died in the ensuing fighting with security forces yesterday, he said.

The fighting -- that follows a spree of bloody clashes between pro-Taliban tribesmen and Pakistani troops in recent weeks -- erupted after a rocket attack late on Tuesday on a military base in Mana, a village about 50km west of the main town of Miranshah, that left at least two soldiers dead. Two more troops were killed in fighting yesterday.

Helicopter backed ground troops in yesterday's fighting that had ended by late afternoon, Sultan said.

"There is an exchange of fire going on" in Shawal, a rugged, forested area about 15km from the Afghan border, he said.

Sultan fierce fighting was going on to drive out militants holed up in at least fortress-like compounds.

He refused to identify the militants who surrendered or give their nationalities, adding that troops have the bodies of eight of those who were killed in the clashes yesterday.

Military have said Arab, Central Asian and Afghan fighters are present in the region, but local tribesmen are showing increasing resistance to the government in the lawless region. Last month, the army reported that scores of foreign and local militants were killed in fighting with security forces.

"Helicopter gunships have been flying in and out of Miranshah toward Shawal since morning," a resident of Miranshah said.

Shawal, an upland valley with forests and meadows, is about 50km west of Miranshah.

Militants fired seven rockets at a military post at Tata Khel, a village located on the edge of Miranshah, that injured two soldiers late on Tuesday, a security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.

Pakistan, a key US ally in the war on terror, has deployed about 80,000 troops in its tribal regions near Afghanistan in an effort to flush out al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.

The latest clashes came as Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz visited the US and US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher made his first visit to Pakistan.

Asked comment on a perception that Pakistan often launches crackdowns against militants when a senior US official is visiting here or a Pakistani leader travels to the US, Sultan said: "Did we ask them to attack [the troops] last night?"