Al Qaeda Uzbeks, Pakistani tribesmen clash; 17 dead

WANA, Pakistan, Mar 6 (Reuters) Seventeen people, including 12 al Qaeda-linked Uzbeks, were killed today in the first reported clash between militants and tribesmen in a Pakistani region seen as a hotbed of militant support.

Three Pakistani tribesmen and two Afghan refugees were among the dead in the fighting in Azam Warsak, a village in the South Waziristan region near the Afghan border, intelligence officials said.

''Both sides used AK-47 Kalashnikov rifles,'' said one intelligence official who declined to be identified.

The fighting broke out in the village market after militants tried to assassinate a pro-government tribal elder, Malik Saeedullah Khan, they said. A brother of Khan was killed, one official said.

Hundreds of foreign militants, most of them Uzbeks, Chechens and Arabs, have been hiding in Waziristan and some other Pakistani tribal areas after fleeing Afghanistan when US-led forces defeated the Taliban in late 2001.

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

While many people have been assassinated by the militants, the fighting today was the first reported clash between the militants and ethnic Pashtun tribesmen in the area.

The militants opened fire at Khan, the head of a government-backed peace committee, as he passed through the market area.

Khan escaped unhurt and later up to 250 tribesmen took to the bazaar and exchanged fire with the militants.

''Sporadic fighting is still going on and angry tribesmen have blocked the road linking Azam Warsak to Wana,'' said another intelligence official, referring to the main town in South Waziristan.

It was the second time the Uzbeks had tried to kill Khan in three days.

The Uzbek fighters belonged to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) militant group, one of the intelligence officials said.

Azam Warsak and nearby areas were the scene of fierce fighting in 2004, when Pakistani security forces launched a major operation against militants commanded by IMU leader, Tahir Yuldashev.

More than 100 people were killed in that fighting but Yuldashev, who is accused of a series of bomb blasts in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, in 1999, escaped.

REUTERS SP RAI2033