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Militant hideout destroyed in northwestern Pakistan

A missile destroyed a suspected militant hideout in northwestern Pakistan yesterday, killing 12 people, officials said.

In clashes elsewhere in the area, militants killed a government soldier and injured four more.

The air attack occurred after midnight in Khushali Torikhel, a village in North Waziristan, a tribal region bordering Afghanistan, an intelligence and a government official in the region said. The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make media comments.

"It was a missile attack," the intelligence official said. He described the victims as "local Taliban."

Neither the government nor the Pakistani military had any immediate comment on the attack in Khushali Torikhel, which is located about 70km east of the Afghan border.

Islamic insurgents have stepped up attacks against government troops and officials in the rugged tribal regions, where scores of militants and troops have died in clashes in recent weeks.

The government frequently employs air strikes to attack militants in areas which its ground forces and artillery can't reach.

Some of the aerial attacks on the border in recent years are believed to have been launched by missile-armed drones flying from Afghanistan, but authorities in both countries have routinely denied any knowledge of such operations.

In other fighting yesterday, one soldier was killed in South Waziristan, a neighboring region along the border, the army said in a statement. Twelve insurgents were arrested in the area, it said.

And in another area of North Waziristan region, four members of the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary were injured when assailants fired several artillery rockets at a military base, a local intelligence official said.

The mounting violence in the northwest has contributed to the growing unpopularity of Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, who returned early yesterday from a European tour.
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