Up to 12 militants killed in Pakistan's Waziristan

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, July 31 (Reuters) Pakistani security forces, backed by helicopter gunships, killed up to 12 Islamist militants in fighting in the troubled North Waziristan tribal region on the Afghan border today, the military said.

Pakistan has seen a massive increase in violence, especially in the border tribal areas, since security forces stormed the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, in Islamabad earlier this month.

The government is under US pressure to strike at Taliban and al Qaeda elements in the same border regions.

Today fighting broke out after militants riding on two vehicles tried to attack security forces in Khawaja Wali village, near Miranshah, North Waziristan's main town.

Government forces broke the attack and killed militants in return fire, the military said.

''The security forces also had the support of helicopters and they killed 10 to 12 militants,'' a military official who declined to be identified told Reuters.

The latest clashes in North Waziristan, known as a hotbed of support for al Qaeda-linked fighters, came a day after seven people were killed in militant attacks.

Elsewhere today, a roadside bomb blast struck a paramilitary vehicle in Tank district near the South Waziristan tribal region, wounding six soldiers, two of them seriously.

Near Bannu, a settled district and gateway to North Waziristan, a paramilitary soldier was killed in a shootout that erupted after suspected militants tried to kidnap about 10 soldiers.

''One soldier was killed. Five have been recovered while we are trying to recover the remaining four,'' police chief Dar Ali Khattak said.

A roadside bomb wounded three policemen in the northwestern town of Swat, a senior police officer told Reuters. The police were on a routine patrol in the area.

More than 200 security force personnel and civilians have died in militant violence since the army attack on the Lal Masjid complex, a radical Islamist centre, on July 10. Over 100 people died in that assault, mostly those who had been holding out in the mosque.

Around 500 burqa-wearing women activists of an Islamic political alliance rallied in Islamabad today to protest the Lal Masjid assault and call for implementation of a strict Islamic system in Pakistan.

''We are against efforts to secularise Pakistan. It is an Islamic Republic and we want it to make it a true Islamic republic,'' said Samia Raheel Qazi, a woman parliamentarian.

At the weekend, dozens of heavily armed masked militants seized a shrine and mosque in Mohmand tribal region and re-named the mosque after the Lal Masjid.

The government has called a jirga or traditional council of tribal elders to persuade the militants to vacate the compound.

Adding to the tension, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has been under increasing pressure from the United States, an important ally and aid source, to step up action against Taliban and al Qaeda groups Washington says use the border areas as safe havens from which to launch attacks into Afghanistan.

Movement of military and paramilitary convoys in and around those regions has become more frequent and check-posts have been reinforced, although the government has not linked the steps to US demands.

Reuters JT DB2126