Pakistani president calls Islamist rocket attacks `pinpricks'

Islamic fired rockets at a military base in northwestern Pakistan yesterday, killing one soldier and injuring two others as Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf dismissed rising attacks in the region as "pinpricks."

The attack followed fighting on Tuesday that left seven troops and 37 militants dead in the mountainous area close to the Afghan border. Several top al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders are believed to be among thousands of other extremists sheltering there among local tribesmen.

The violence in the border region, as well as a series of suicide attacks that have killed hundreds in recent months, is triggering uncertainty in the country ahead of Feb. 18 elections that many predict will weaken Musharraf's grip on power.

Islamist fired rockets at Razmak Camp in North Waziristan, killing one soldier and wounding two, the military said in a statement.

Musharraf, who is touring Europe seeking support for his embattled government, rejected claims that the violence was a sign of a resurgent Taliban.

"These are pinpricks that they keep doing -- and we have to manage all of that," he said at the French Institute of International Relations think tank.

Musharraf that "it doesn't mean much" that Osama bin Laden and deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri are still at large, and that 100,000 Pakistani troops deployed to fight terrorists are not focused on locating the two.

North South Waziristan emerged as a front line in the war on terror after Pakistan allied itself with the US following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.