Islamic militants launched new attacks on border forts in Pakistan Tuesday, leaving seven troops and 37 rebels dead even as President Pervez Musharraf dismissed fears of a takeover by Al-Qaeda.The attacks in the rugged belt of mountains bordering Afghanistan underlined growing insecurity across the nuclear-armed nation and came just before a top US commander flew in for talks on tackling the rebels.
Fighting has escalated sharply in nuclear-armed Pakistan since former premier Benazir Bhutto was assassinated last month, an attack blamed on an Al-Qaeda-linked tribal warlord based in the tribal region.
In Paris for the second leg of a European tour aimed at shoring up his battered image, Musharraf dismissed fears that Pakistan could slip into Al-Qaeda's hands, saying there was a "zero percent chance" of a takeover.
The only way for that to happen, he said, would be if Al-Qaeda or the Taliban "defeated the Pakistani army entirely" or if extremist religious groups won next month's elections.
Musharraf has been keen to bolster his credibility as a pivotal ally in the fight against terrorism, which has garnered Pakistan more than 10 billion dollars in US aid since September 11, 2001.
In the Pakistani garrison city of Rawalpindi on Tuesday, Admiral William Fallon, head of US Central Command which deals with the Middle East, met Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Kiyani for talks. "He (Fallon) remained with him for some time and discussed matters of professional interest with particular reference to (the) security situation in the region," a Pakistani military statement said.
But Pakistan's claims about being tough on militancy have been undermined by the death of Bhutto and by the wave of violence, in which rebels have adopted a new tactic of massing by the hundreds to attack isolated military outposts.
Militants early Tuesday tried to raid a fort and observation post at Ladha in South Waziristan, sparking a fierce four-hour gunbattle, chief military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told AFP. "It was an intense attack," Abbas said, adding that five soldiers were killed and seven injured. He later said 37 militants were also confirmed dead.
Two civilians were killed and five wounded when Pakistani jets later pounded suspected militant hideouts in Ladha, said injured resident Dildar Khan, who was brought to a hospital in neighbouring North Waziristan.
A clash also erupted in North Waziristan's Razmak town, near Ladha, in which two security personnel were killed and six injured, the army's Abbas said.
Last week militants overran another fort in the town of Sararogha in South Waziristan. The army, meanwhile, denied reports that troops abandoned a third border outpost in the region, in the village of Siplatoi.
Abbas denied the army was planning an offensive against Baitullah Mehsud, the Al-Qaeda-linked warlord blamed by Pakistani and US officials for orchestrating Bhutto's killing at a political rally on December 27.
Mehsud has denied any involvement in Bhutto's killing but warned Pakistani forces not to attack his stronghold and accused the army of killing civilians. "Pakistani forces will face the worst resistance if they try to enter my area," Mehsud said in a statement released by his spokesman, Maulvi Mohammad Omar.
Meanwhile British detectives helping Pakistan probe the former premier's murder may question a teenage suspect and his alleged militant handler held in connection with the killing, officials said Tuesday.
The 15-year-old, named as Aitezaz Shah, was arrested on Friday in the northwestern city of Dera Ismail Khan and allegedly told police he was part of a back-up squad tasked by Mehsud with killing Bhutto if an initial team failed. "The Scotland Yard team will be at liberty to interrogate the two suspects arrested from Dera Ismail Khan, as they are assisting us in Bhutto's assassination case," Interior Ministry spokesman Brigadier Javed Cheema said.