Pakistani troops backed by helicopter gunships and artillery killed some 60 militants close to the Afghan border, officials said Tuesday, underlining the government's intent to confront extremists after the Marriott hotel bombing. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said terrorists are "enemies of Islam with no faith" and vowed to get tough on militants sheltering in the border region. "We will not allow them to challenge the writ of the government and create a law of the jungle and a life of the stone age," he told a gathering of Muslim scholars in the capital, Islamabad.
The fighting Monday and Tuesday comes at a time of tension between the U.S. and Pakistan over American military attacks on militants based in the lawless tribal areas along the border with Afghanistan.
Washington has urged Pakistan to assert its control in the region, which is a haven for al-Qaida and Taliban militants who cross into Afghanistan to attack American and NATO troops as well as for Pakistani extremists who are striking targets in Pakistan.
The bloodiest fighting this week has been in the Kohat region, where the military deployed helicopter gunships and artillery in killing at least 50 militants, an army spokesman, Maj. Murad Khan, said. One solider also died, he said. Khan said the military regained control of a mountain road tunnel seized by insurgents several days ago.
In the nearby Bajur tribal region, security forces killed at least 10 militants Tuesday in the latest round of a major offensive there, government official Iqbal Khattak said.
Al-Qaida or the Taliban are suspected in Saturday's truck bombing at the Marriott hotel in Islamabad. The attack killed 53 people, among them the Czech ambassador and two U.S. Defense Department employees, and wounded about 270. Some officials believe the bombing may have been a response to the Bajur offensive, which the army says has killed more than 700 suspected militants since August. The region is believed to be a possible hiding place for Osama bin Laden.
Pakistan's army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, has described Bajur as a "mega-sanctuary" for militants and said the military was determined to flush them out. However, a series of recent cross-border operations apparently conducted by U.S. forces, including missile strikes and a ground assault, have highlighted Washington's concerns that the Pakistani government is unwilling or incapable of rooting out extremists.
The incursions have angered many Pakistanis and drawn officials protests that Washington is violating the country's sovereignty, something President Bush acknowledged before meeting with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari in New York on Tuesday. "Your words have been very strong about Pakistan's sovereign right and sovereign duty to protect your country, and the United States wants to help," Bush said. "Pakistan is an ally, and I look forward to deepening our relationship."
Meanwhile, at least six people -- including a 12-year-old boy -- were killed and a bank set afire Tuesday during rioting in Mangora in the northwestern Swat Valley, police and a hospital official said. It was unclear how the people died, but police said officers fired warning shots trying to control a mob that was protesting the lack of electricity and natural gas in the town. Police officer Mohibullah Khan said militants bombed the power station and gas pipeline to the town last week.
In Geneva, the U.N. refugee agency asked for donations of $17 million to aid more than 300,000 Pakistanis who have fled fighting and floods near the Afghan border. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees has distributed supplies to 84,000 people displaced by floods in northwestern Pakistan and could provide shelter and other relief to more than three times that number if it had more money, agency spokesman William Spindler said. Pakistan's government estimates 90,000 people chased from their homes by fighting are living as refugees along the Afghan border in North West Frontier Province and a similar number are displaced in the northern part of the province around Swat, Spindler said.
The deadly bombing of the Marriott continued to affect operations of diplomatic missions, aid groups and other organizations. British Airways said Tuesday it "indefinitely" suspended flights to Pakistan "in light of the current security situation." A British Embassy spokesman, Aidan Liddle, said a company that runs four visa application centers for the embassy closed them pending a security review.
In Washington, the Pentagon identified one of two Americans killed in Marriott bombing as Air Force Maj. Rodolfo I. Rodriguez, 34, of El Paso, Texas.