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15 militants killed in clash with Pakistan troops

AP, Islamabad
Pakistani forces seeking to conquer a Taliban and al-Qaeda stronghold near the border with Afghanistan killed 15 insurgents in ongoing clashes, officials said yesterday.
There was no word of casualties on die government side. It was not possible to verify the claim of militant losses in Bajur because the government blocks reporters from visiting the dangerous region.
US officials have praised the operation in Bajur, which Pakistan's army says has been serving as a sanctuary for insurgents fighting on both sides of the frontier. However, it is only one of several militant hotspots in Pakistan's border region and the army says its troops have run into stiff and well-organised resistance.
Fazl Rabi, a local police official, said troops repelled an overnight attack by 50 militants against a camp about 6 miles north of Khar, Bajur's main town. He said militants also attacked paramilitary
troops before dawn in the Tang Khata area of Bajur.
Rabi and another government official counted a total of 15 militants killed and more than a dozen wounded in overnight clashes.
TV/o intelligence officials said three troops died in fighting in the past two days. They asked for anonymity because they were not authorised to talk on the record to media.
Meanwhile, artillery fire directed at suspected militant hideouts in an area called Badali struck two houses and killed two civilians, said Niazur Rehman, a local resident.
Bajur is the most northerly of Pakistan's wild tribal regions, several of which have fallen largely under the control of militants opposed to the Afghan and Pakistani governments.
The army claims to have killed more than 1,000 militants in the two-month-old offensive in Bajur and lost more than 60 troops. It has declined to estimate casualties among civilians.
The border zone is considered a likely hiding place for al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari said in remarks aired on Sunday that he had no idea where bin Laden was. He also reiterated his appeal to US authorities to halt unilateral raids on militant targets in Pakistani territory, insisting Pakistani forces could be trusted to do the job.
Meanwhile, the United Nations says 20,000 Pakistani refugees have fled to Afghanistan to avoid fighting between militants and Pakistan's military.
The UN's refugee agency says nearly 4,000 Pakistani families have fled Pakistan's Bajur tribal agency into Afghanistan's Kunar province.
Pakistan's military launched an offensive in Bajur. the most northerly of Pakistan's wild tribal regions, several of which have fallen largely under the control of militants opposed to the Afghan and Pakistani governments.
Tens of thousands of civilians have fled into other parts of Pakistan as a result of the 2-month-old offensive.
The agency says it believes the majority of those who have crossed into Afghanistan will return home once the fighting stops.