Pakistan strikes at al Qaeda-linked compound

KHAR, Pakistan, Oct 30 (Reuters) Pakistan Army helicopters destroyed an al Qaeda-linked compound housing 70 to 80 militants in a dawn attack near the border with Afghanistan today, Pakistan's military spokesman said.

''It was a madrasa (Islamic school) compound but was used for terrorist activities and not as a madrasa,'' spokesman Shaukat Sultan said.

Sultan said no prominent militant was believed to be in the compound in Chenagai village, 10 km (six miles) north of Khar, the main town in the Bajaur tribal region, when it was attacked.

''The compound has been destroyed,'' he said.

He said the madrasa belonged to local Taliban commander Maulana Liaqatullah, a militant cleric wanted by the authorities for providing sanctuary to al Qaeda militants and for ''terrorist activities''.

Witnesses said there were casualties but Sultan said he had no details on that.

''I saw three to four helicopters hovering in the area at around 5 am,'' said Haji Habibullah, a local resident.

Aamir Khan, a senior doctor at the main hospital in Khar, said three wounded people had been admitted.

Another hospital official Habib Khan told Reuters the wounded brought from the compound were suffering from burns.

''According to locals, most of people there have been killed,'' Khan said.

Pakistan's lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border has been a haven for Islamist militants for decades and a large number of al Qaeda and Taliban guerrillas fled to these areas after fleeing the US-led hunt for them in Afghanistan after September 11.

The attack came two days after some 3,000 militants held a rally near Khar, chanting slogans in support of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar.

In January, U S forces in Afghanistan carried out a airstrike in Bajaur's Damadola village which U S officials said was aimed at al Qaeda's second-in-command, Ayman al-Zawahri.

Zawahri was not present there but few al Qaeda operatives were killed in that attack.

A mountainous region that is difficult to access, Bajaur lies opposite Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar, where U S troops are leading the hunt for al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

Bajaur is the most north-easterly of the seven semi-autonomous tribal regions that make up Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and are home to around 3.5 million people.

The Pakistan military has close to two divisions, some 30,000 troops, in North and South Waziristan, the two other tribal agencies where support for the Taliban and al Qaeda has been rampant.

But the army is only deployed along the frontier in Bajaur and internal security has been left to police and militia recruited locally.

REUTERS SAM HT1228