Pakistanis scour militant hideout after attack

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, Apr 13 (Reuters) Pakistani villagers pulled three bodies out of the rubble of a suspected hideout of Islamist militants that was razed in an overnight attack by army helicopter gunships in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan.

A number of foreign militants are believed to have been killed in the attack on a compound in Nagar, six km south of Miranshah, the main town of restive North Waziristan region where the army has been fighting al Qaeda and Taliban guerrillas and their local Pashtun sympathisers.

''Three bodies have been pulled out. A search is underway for others,'' a resident of Nagar told Reuters. He did not say whether bodies were of militants or tribesmen.

Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said details about the number of militants killed and their identity were still being gathered.

A military campaign to rid the tribal areas of al Qaeda switched to North Waziristan from South Waziristan last year, and there have been a series of fierce clashes in the past month.

Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt has been infested with al Qaeda remnants and Taliban who fled Afghanistan after US-led forces toppled the Taliban regime in 2001.

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

REUTERS SY BS1116