Militants kill "US spy" in Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Mar 5 (Reuters) Suspected pro-Taliban militants shot dead a Pakistani tribesman on suspicion of being a US informer, the second such killing near the Afghan border in less than a week, an official and witnesses said.

The body of the man, Qayyum Shamiri, 35, was found today dumped by a road near Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan region, a hotbed of Islamist support.

''He was shot in the forehead and they left his body there in the open,'' said a government official in the region.

A note pinned to his body said ''US spies will have a similar fate'', the official said.

Militants in North and South Waziristan have killed dozens of people they accused of supporting the Pakistani government or spying for US forces in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Last Tuesday, militants beheaded an Afghan cleric in South Waziristan after accusing him of being a US spy. The cleric had spoken out against militants in his sermons.

Many Taliban militants and foreign al Qaeda members fled into Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal regions after US-led forces ousted the radical Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001.

Pakistani forces have tried to flush out the foreign militants and subdue their Pakistani allies and hundreds of people have been killed killed.

The government later signed peace deals aimed at ending fighting and stopping militant infiltration into Afghanistan but critics say the deals have given the militants free rein and led to the ''Talibanisation'' of the region.

The government of President Pervez Musharraf, a major ally in the US-led war on terrorism, defends the deals, saying they have led to a reduction of violence in both Pakistan and Afghanistan, and dismisses concern about Talibanisation.

Reuters AKJ DB1229