Pakistani forces fought gunbattles with tribesmen near the Afghan border yesterday after launching a new operation to pursue al-Qaeda and Taliban fugitives, the military and local officials said.
Pakistan's hunt coincides with a fresh offensive by US forces, who are confident of capturing bin Laden this year, against al-Qaeda leaders across the border in Afghanistan.
Operation "Mountain Storm," announced by the US military on Saturday, is targeting areas of south and southeast Afghanistan which flank the Pakistani tribal district South Waziristan, where yesterday's operation by Pakistani troops was underway.
Several people were injured in early-morning shootouts between troops and tribesmen suspected of harboring the fugitives near the South Waziristan town of Azam Warzak, a local intelligence official said.
"Frontier Corps forces and Waziri tribes have been engaged in heavy crossfire since early this morning," the official said on condition of anonymity.
Military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force, had launched "a search operation." He refused to give details.
The latest operation follows President Pervez Musharraf's ultimatum Monday to an estimated "500 to 600 foreigners" hiding in the tribal belt along the border to surrender.
"We have given them the option that if they lay down their arms, we will not hand over them to any other country," he told tribal leaders in a meeting in Pakistan's main northwestern city Peshawar.
Azam Warzak, 20km from the Afghan border and 15km west of South Waziristan's capital Wana, was the scene of the Pakistani army's worst casualties in the war on terror in June 2002.
Ten soldiers were killed in a massive shootout with some 40 al-Qaeda fugitives hiding in a local tribesman's home. Most of the fugitives escaped.
The Wana-based intelligence official said troops yesterday were pursuing seven tribesmen wanted for harboring al-Qaeda suspects.
Witnesses reported mortar and artillery fire and said troops had cordoned off the scene of the shootout.
Tribesmen in South Waziristan last week formed a 600-man force to launch their own hunt for scores of fellow tribesmen accused of giving shelter to al-Qaeda militants.
Tribesmen from the region's deeply conservative ethnic Pashtun community, sympathetic to the Taliban and al-Qaeda, are believed to have sheltered the militants after US-led forces invaded Afghanistan in late 2001 to topple the Taliban regime.
South Waziristan has been the focus of several raids by Pakistani troops hunting militants in recent months. On Feb. 24 they captured 20 militants and sympathizers in a raid near Wana, denying later rumors that the son of bin Laden's right hand man Ayman al-Zawahri was among them.
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