Eleven die in clashes in Pakistan's tribal region

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan May 16 (Reuters) Eight pro-Taliban militants and a Pakistani trooper were killed in a clash in Pakistan's troubled tribal region of North Waziristan today, security officials said.

The clash occurred after the rebels ambushed a paramilitary vehicle in the Shawat area, around 12 km southwest of North Waziristan's main town of Miranshah.

The forces used gunship helicopters in their counter-attack and besieged two houses where militants were suspected to be hiding, intelligence officials said.

Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told a news conference in Islamabad that the security forces had taken bodies of the militants into custody and their identity was being established.

He said one militant was arrested.

Separately, militants shot dead two policemen in Miranshah overnight, a security official in the area told Reuters.

North Waziristan, a semi-autonomous area bordering Afghanistan, is the focus of a military campaign to rid the tribal lands of al Qaeda remnants.

Clashes have intensified since an air strike on an al Qaeda compound in early March and altogether security forces have killed over 300 militants, including around 75 foreigners, in North Waziristan since the middle of last year.

Many al Qaeda militants and their Taliban allies took refuge among Pakistan's conservative Pashtun tribes living in the border areas after being driven out of Afghanistan by US-backed forces following the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001.

REUTERS DKS RN1815