Seven killed in Pakistan's restive tribal belt

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, Apr 3 (Reuters) Five people were killed in a landmine blast and two pro-Taliban militants died in a clash with security forces in Pakistan's restive tribal region today, officials said.

The incidents occured in the North Waziristan tribal region, where around 200 tribesmen were killed in clashes with security forces last month. They were answering a call to arms by militant Muslim clerics following a special forces assault on an al Qaeda camp.

The landmine victims were travelling in a vehicle in Dattakhel area near North Waziristan's main town of Miranshah when it struck a landmine.

''Five people were killed on the spot, while the sixth is in critical condition,'' said an intelligence official.

In the second incident, two pro-Taliban militants were killed after militants attacked a paramilitary patrol in the town of Mir Ali. The militants had hurled hand grenades on the troops, wounding three of them, another intelligence official said.

The incidents took place a day after one soldier was killed and 10 people wounded in clashes in the region, which is infested with al Qaeda and Taliban fighters and their local sympathisers.

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

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

REUTERS OM HS1441