Rockets kill Pakistani soldier, wound children

Miranshah (Pakistan), Apr 2: An exchange of rocket fire between Pakistani troops and pro-Taliban militants near the Afghan border killed one soldier and wounded 10 people, including three children, officials and residents said today.

The militants opened fire last night, targeting a fort in the Dattakhel area, west of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan semi-autonomous tribal region infested with al Qaeda and Taliban fighters and their sympathisers.

Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said one soldier was killed and four wounded in the attack on the fort.

Residents said three children were wounded in a subsequent exchange of fire, but it was unclear which side had fired the rocket that hit their house.

It was also unknown whether the attackers suffered any casualties as they fled in the darkness.

In a separate rocket attack in the Shawal area of North Waziristan, militants wounded three paramilitary troopers.

Last month, President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the US-led war on terrorism, warned foreign militants hiding in the tribal region to leave Pakistan or face annihilation.

Around 200 tribesmen were killed in clashes with security forces in March after they answered a call to arms by militant Muslim clerics following a special forces assault on an al Qaeda camp in the area.

A large number of al Qaeda remnants and Taliban fled to Pakistan's tribal regions after US-led forces toppled the radical Taliban regime in Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 attacks on Washington and New York.

REUTERS