Pakistani jets pounded militant hideouts near a troubled tribal town fc r a third day yesterday as officials said around 250 people had died in some of the heaviest clashes since 2001.

The fighting has forced thousands K । flee from Mir Ali, a town in

lawless North Waziristan district that President Pervez Musharraf has previously pinpointed as a den of Qsama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

Residents said dozens of people including women and children were killed in the latest air strikes in the rugged region bordering

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Afghanistan, but security officials insisted the dead were all Islamist fighters.

The unrest puts extra pressure on military ruler Musharraf - a key allyinthe US-led "war on terror" -• as he waits for the Supreme Court to ratify his victory in a presidential poll.

Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said at least 150 militants and 45 soldiers had been killed In battles that first erupted on Sunday after proTaliban rebels ambushed an army convoy.

Another two troops died in a roadside bombing on Tuesday, a statementsaid.

"There were militant hideouts in the area near Mir Ali, aircraft targeted these hideouts onTliesday but I don't have the number of casualties from that." Arshad told AFR

Security officials in the north-ivestern city of Peshawar said another 50 militants were killed in Tuesday’s airstrikes and a similar number were injured.

Residents, however, said bombs dropped by fighter jets hit the main bazaar in Khedar Khel, a village near Mir Ali.

“Some 50 people including women and children have died in the bombing," resident Noor Mohammad. 45, told AFP by telephone.

"The number of injured is even more."

Most of the 50,000 inhabitants of Mir Ali had fled after more than 50 houses were damaged and the army placed the town under virtual curfew, residentssaid.

"Our homes have been damaged severely, most of the families have migrated to relatives' homes in neighbouring towns," tribesman Faridullah Khan said as military helicopters circled overhead.

Desperate locals used mosque loudspeakers to beg the military not to fire at their homes, tribal elder Malik Iqbal Khan said.

Army spokesman Arshad said that tribal elders had called a council or jirga involving tribesmen, militant representatives and the local administration in a bid to halt the violence.

But the military indicated that il was in no mood to compromise.

"The army is fighting well-trained militants. There are linkages with Afghanistan. Many of them are getting money and weapons from across the border," Arshad said.

A Pakistani security official said the militants Involved had the "latest weaponry and lots of money" from across the porous border.

They were also "in contact with members of a hostile country in Afghanistan" — an apparent reference to Pakistan's long-term nuclear-armed rival India, its neighbour on the eastern side, the official added.

Pakistan has become increasingly convinced that India has a hand in a wave of violence that erupted after Pakistani security forces besieged and then raided the al-Qaeda-linked Red Mosque in Islamabad in July.