Militants kill policeman in Pakistan tribal belt

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Jan 26 (Reuters) Suspected Islamist militants killed a policeman and critically wounded another in Pakistan's wild tribal belt where security forces are battling al Qaeda and Taliban guerrillas, officials said today.

The suspected militants ambushed a police vehicle when it was on a routine patrol late yesterday in the town of Tank.

''They (militants) fired indiscriminately at the vehicle, killed a policeman and fled,'' an intelligence official said.

Tank adjoins South Waziristan tribal region where a Pakistani air strike on a suspected Taliban and al Qaeda base earlier this month killed up to 20 militants.

In another incident, dozens of militants attacked a tribal police post in Bajaur, the most northerly of Pakisan's seven tribal regions, with rockets and machine-gun fire yesterday night, critically wounding a policeman.

Hundreds of people have been killed in Waziristan in clashes between security forces and militants since late 2003.

The region has been relatively calm after the government struck peace deals with militants in 2005 and 2006 but US officials said cross-border incursions into Afghanistan by the militants based in Pakistan increased significantly in recent months.

Tensions have been running high in the areas after the South Waziristan attack and tribesmen fear a breakdown in peace accords.

Earlier this week, four soldiers and a woman passer-by were killed in a rare suicide car bomb attack in neighbouring North Waziristan.

Reuters PDM VP1244