Pakistani tribesmen find headless "U S informer"

DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan, Apr 26 (Reuters) Pro-Taliban militants beheaded a cab driver on suspicion of being an informer for the United States, the fourth such killing in Pakistan's restive Waziristan region this month, officials said today.

The body was found late yesterday by the roadside in Shavai Kainari, 25 km south of Wana, the main town of South Waziristan that borders Afghanistan in an area where US-led forces are hunting al Qaeda militants and their allies.

An intelligence official in Wana, requesting anonymity, said the driver was kidnapped by the Muslim militants last week.

''He was killed on suspicion that he was acting as a U S informer,'' the official said.

Two weeks ago, a headless body was found in North Waziristan with a note attached saying the victim was an American spy and warning others they would face the same fate.

Last week, a tribesman and an Afghan cab driver were killed in North Waziristan for the same reason.

Many al Qaeda militants and their Taliban allies fled to Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt after they were chased out of Afghanistan by U S-backed forces in late 2001.

President Pervez Musharraf, a key US ally in war on terror, sought support from tribesmen in fighting militants in the restive region, bordering Afghanistan.

''You should curb terrorism and extremism through the traditional jirga (tribal council) system to pave the way for the federal government to minimise the deployment of the security forces and consequently withdraw them from the tribal areas,'' the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan quoted him as telling tribal elders in the main northwestern city of Peshawar.

''I assure you that these foreigners are not your friends and they are here to fulfill their own agenda which has no concern with Islam'', he said.

Pakistan has deployed around 80,000 troops in the semi-autonomous tribal belt to flush out militants but they have faced strong resistance from fiercely independent Pushtun tribesmen, many of whom sympathise with militants and resent the army's presence in the region.

REUTERS DKS BST2014