Pakistan quells border fighting

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Backed by helicopters and artillery, security forces regained control of a major town near Afghanistan on Sunday after a fierce overnight battle with local tribesmen, authorities said. But sporadic fighting continued, underscoring the challenge that still confronts the government four years after its army began operations to secure the remote region.

The government’s assertion of progress came a day after hundreds of armed tribesmen seized government buildings in the town of Miran Shah, forcibly shut down the main bazaar and opened fire on an army fort, Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, the chief military spokesman, said at a news conference Sunday afternoon.

The local insurrection began on the same day that President Bush met in Islamabad with Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president, on a visit aimed partly at ensuring Pakistan’s full cooperation in the war on terrorism. The tribesmen were retaliating for an army assault earlier in the week on a militant training camp in the area.

The fighting Saturday and overnight in Miran Shan and adjacent areas killed 46 tribesmen and 5 soldiers, another 10 of whom were wounded, according to Sultan. Other reports put the death toll at more than 70, including noncombatants.

By Sunday morning, the fighting had calmed down except for “sporadic firing,” Sultan said, and militants had abandoned their positions in Miran Shah, a notorious smugglers’ haven about 20 miles from Afghanistan that serves as the administrative capital of North Waziristan, one of seven semiautonomous tribal zones in the border region.

The fighting was some of the heaviest in several years on Pakistan’s side of the border.

Under pressure from the United States, the government has been trying since early 2002 to assert control over the tribal areas, whose terrain serves as refuge for Taliban and remnants of al-Qaida and is considered a likely hiding place for Osama bin Laden and his top deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.