10 Militants Killed in Pakistan

At least 10 suspected militants were killed when a missile struck a house in north-west Pakistan, officials said today.

The attack took place after midnight in Torkhali, a village in North Waziristan, a tribal region bordering Afghanistan, near the town of Mir Ali.

An intelligence official said six of the dead were Pakistani militants and four were foreigners. Violence has intensified in north-west Pakistan in recent weeks. Most of the fighting has been in South Waziristan, which also lies along the Afghan border.

The Pakistani government this month launched an offensive against Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani Taliban leader based in South Waziristan. He is blamed for the assassination of the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last month, and for other attacks against Pakistani forces. More than 150 militants and more than 20 soldiers have died in the fighting.

In a separate incident, gunmen took up to 250 schoolchildren hostage in the town of Bannu in North West Frontier Province yesterday, but released them unharmed after negotiations with tribal elders.

US forces in neighboring Afghanistan have fired missiles at militants on the Pakistani side of the border several times in recent years. Neither US nor Pakistani authorities officially confirm the attacks on Pakistani territory as they would constitute a violation of Pakistani sovereignty.

Pakistan says foreign troops will never be allowed to operate on its territory, and Pervez Musharraf, the president of Pakistan, this month rejected US pressure to allow CIA operatives or US special forces to operate in the north-west of the country.

The area is a sanctuary for al-Qaida members, including Uzbeks and Arabs, and Taliban militants who fled to North and South Waziristan after US-led forces threw the Taliban out of Afghanistan in 2001.