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Pak troops clash with Mehsud men: 15 die

AFP, Peshawar
Fighting between pro-Pakistan government forces and militants affiliated to Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud has killed at least 15 people, officials said yesterday.
Mehsud's Te h r e e k - e • Ta I i b a n Pakistan movement appears to have been thrown in turmoil following his presumed death in a US drone attack and analysts say Pakistan must now bolster efforts to eliminate militants in tribal strongholds.
Seven people died in gunfights on Wednesday between Taliban militants and militiamen loyal to a pro-government tribal warlord in the remote South Waziristan tribal district bordering Afghanistan, security officials said.
The fighting broke out when militants loyal to Mehsud, whom US and Pakistani officials believe was killed in a US missile attack last week, attacked followers of lUrkistan Bitani in Sur Ghar village.
"I can confirm the deaths of seven people in clashes between Taliban and Turkistan Bitani's group," a security official based in the area told AFP
Another security official in the town of Dera Ismail Khan also said seven died in the gunbattles, but was unable to confirm reports that 20 to 25 people had been killed.
Intelligence officials in the region said Mehsud's men attacked Sur Ghar, burnt 12 houses and killed seven of Bitani's fighters.
Government security forces and helicopters were scrambled to pound Mehsud's men, but there were no reports about any casualties, they said.
In a counter-attack, Bitani's men kidnapped 14 of Mehsud's meh, including commander Ismatullah Shaheen, an intelligence official told AFP
Taliban and al-Qaeda rebels are believed to have fled Afghanistan after the 2001 US-led invasion, carving out bolt holes and training camps in the remote mountains of Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt.
Pakistani helicopters and security forces killed eight militants in Kurram tribal district on Thursday, another securityofficial told AFP.
The strikes took place at Spurkot village, located between Kurram and Orakzai, another district in Pakistan's tribal badlands.
"Eight militants in commander Tariq's group, which is affiliated with Baitullah Mehsud, were killed in the strike," the official said.
The militants had been hiding in Spurkot after fleeing Darra Adam Khcl, a tribal area between Pakistan's northwest capital Peshawar and the garrison town of Kohat.headded.