Pakistani Forces Battle Militants, Kill 40

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From Reuters: Pakistani forces have cleared militant strongholds from three areas in the South Waziristan region of Pakistan on the Afghan border. During the fighting, 40 militants and 8 soldiers were killed, the military said on Thursday. The army is sending in reinforcements and tanks after a week of fighting with militants loyal to a Taliban commander the government said was behind the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last month. The clashes, in which nearly 150 militants and more than 20 government soldiers have been killed, raise concern about the nuclear-armed country in the run-up to a February 18th election that could weaken President Pervez Musharraf.

Security forces carried out operations in three parts of South Waziristan, the military said. "These areas have been cleared of militant strongholds and hideouts," a statement said. "Forty miscreants have been killed in the last 24 hours and 30 miscreants have been apprehended while many injured." Eight soldiers were killed and 32 wounded. The fighting is in strongholds of militant chief Baitullah Mehsud, who the United States has also said was behind Bhutto's assassination in a gun and bomb attack in Rawalpindi on December 27th. Mehsud has been blamed for a string of attacks in a suicide bomb campaign that intensified after commandos stormed a radical mosque complex in Islamabad last July. On Wednesday of last week, his men attacked and captured another fort in Waziristan.

Security forces have been battling al Qaeda-linked militants in South Waziristan for several years. The mountainous region, occupied by conservative, independent-minded Pashtun tribesmen, has never come under the full authority of any government. Militants in South and North Waziristan also attack U.S. and NATO forces and Afghan government troops across the border in Afghanistan.

Admiral William Fallon, the head of the U.S. military's Central Command, visited Pakistan for talks with army chief General Ashfaq Kayani on Tuesday. Fallon told reporters in Florida last week that Pakistan was increasingly willing to fight Islamist militants and accept U.S. help, without saying what kind of support. The United States has already announced plans to step up training of Pakistan's Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force recruited from tribal lands.