Pakistani troops kill attacker outside tribal town

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, Apr 15 (Reuters) Troops shot dead a militant who threw a grenade wounding at least two soldiers near Miranshah, the main town in a Pakistani tribal region close to the Afghan border, security officials said today.

Miranshah, in North Waziristan, has been the scene of fierce clashes between Pakistani forces and al Qaeda-linked militants and local allies among the tribesmen in recent weeks.

The grenade attack took place as a military convoy approached the outskirts of Miranshah. Residents said they believed the explosion was caused by something more powerful than a grenade.

''There was a huge explosion and then firing broke out. The market is being closed,'' a Reuters journalist said, adding that it was unclear what had caused the blast.

On Wednesday night, just a few miles south of Miranshah, the army killed an Egyptian al Qaeda member, wanted for involvement in the 1998 bombing of the U S embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

A Pakistani government spokesman named the man as Abdul Rehman, one of the aliases used by Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah, for whom the United States has offered a 5 million dollars reward.

He was killed along with six other Islamist militants in a missile attack by Pakistani Cobra helicopters on their hideout in North Waziristan tribal region just before midnight on Wednesday, according to officials.

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

A 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 and over 250, mostly tribal militants, have been killed since early March.

Osama bin Laden is believed to have passed through North Waziristan during his escape from Afghanistan in late 2001.

REUTERS SHB BST1904