Pakistani forces kill 4 militants in Waziristan

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, Sep 6 (Reuters) A Pakistan army helicopter attacked a vehicle carrying suspected al Qaeda-linked militants in the North Waziristan region on the Afghan border today, killing four of them, intelligence officials said.

Two passersby were also killed in the attack near the town of Mir Ali, notorious for being a safe haven for militants including Arabs and Central Asians.

Military spokesmen were not immediately available for comments.

Violence in Pakistan, mainly in its northwest tribal belt on the Afghan border, has intensified after a peace deal with militants broke down and an army crackdown on a pro-Taliban mosque in the capital Islamabad in July.

On Tuesday, two suicide bombers suspected of being linked to Waziristan struck near the Pakistani army's headquarters in the city of Rawalpindi, killing 25 people, many of them staff from the country's main intelligence agency.

The helicopter attack today came as a council of tribal elders held talks with militants in neighbouring South Waziristan to secure release of nearly 240 soldiers taken hostage last week.

The militants, who are demanding the withdrawal of troops from the region, released six of them yesterday.

A large number of al Qaeda and Taliban militants fled to the lawless tribal belt on the Afghan border after US and Afghan opposition forces toppled the Taliban government in Afghanistan in late 2001.

Despite Pakistani military efforts to clear out the foreign militants and isolate their Pakistani tribesmen allies, US officials say al Qaeda and Taliban fighters are still able to regroup and plot attacks from the Pakistani border lands.

REUTERS JK PM1949