Pro-Taliban militants kill 2 accused 'US spies'

Miranshah, Pakistan, Feb 6: Suspected pro-Taliban militants killed two men they accused of being US spies in a Pakistani region near the Afghan border, residents said today.

It was the second such incident in the North Waziristan region since late last week.

Militants in North and South Waziristan have killed dozens of people suspected of supporting the Pakistani government or of spying for the United States in the past three years.

The bodies of two men who appeared to be Afghan refugees were found near a village about 15 km (10 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, residents said.

''Their bodies were riddled with bullets and the throat of one the bearded men was slit,'' one resident, Mohammad Ayub, told sources.

He said a note found near the bodies read: ''Those spying for America will meet the same fate''.

The body of an Afghan refugee was found near Miranshah with a similar note pinned to him on Friday.

Many al Qaeda militants and members of the Taliban fled into Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal lands from Afghanistan after US-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001.

Pakistan, a major US ally in the war on terrorism, has been trying to clear foreign militants out of the area and pacify their Pakistani allies over the past three years and hundreds of people have been killed in clashes Yesterday, a roadside bomb killed two pro-government tribal elders in Bajaur, another region on the Afghan border to the north of Waziristan.

Up to 20 people were killed in a Pakistani military air strike on a militant camp in South Waziristan last month.

Since then, several suicide bombings in the northwest and one in the capital Islamabad have killed nearly 30 people and raised fears the conflict is spreading out of the remote border lands.

REUTERS