Fresh clashes erupted in a tribal region on Wednesday after a tribal force launched an offensive to expel foreign al Qaeda-linked militants from their lands, officials said. Up to 60 foreign militants, most of them Uzbeks, were believed to have been killed and about 40 had surrendered to the tribal force, Hussainzada Khan.
The top administrator of the South Waziristan region and a security official, said. "We are receiving reports that 50 to 60 Uzbeks have been killed. We are checking these reports," Khan told Reuters.
An intelligence official in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, said about 40 Uzbeks had been killed in the fighting in which the tribesmen attacked and captured a militant stronghold in a village near Wana.
The military says it has not been involved in the fighting. Tribesmen beating traditional war drums for the first time in three years raised an army, known as a lashkar, of 1,500 fighters in Wana on Tuesday. They vowed to expel foreign militants and punish any Pakistanis harbouring them.
Government officials say more than 200 people have been killed, most of them Uzbek militants, since early last month although residents of the rugged land of rocky mountains and forests say the toll is lower. The military says the fighting over the past month shows the government's policy is working.