Fierce Combat Continues in Tribal Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN Aug. 27, 2008— -- Pakistani frontier corpsmen, backed by helicopter gunships, killed at least 35 militants in the last 24 hours as some of the year's fiercest combat in the Northwest Frontier continued into its fourth week.

Among the 25 killed in the Bajour agency, where the local Taliban have strong links with al Qaeda, were "top level" Taliban commanders and foreign fighters from Uzbekistan and Chechnya, according to military sources.

Frontier corpsmen engaged a militant "hideout" using helicopters and artillery on Wednesday morning, said Maj. Murad, a spokesman for Pakistan's army.

The fighting in Bajour came just hours after militants tried to storm the Tiarza checkpoint in South Waziristan, where the Taliban also has a close relationship with al Qaeda. Security forces repelled the attack and killed 11 militants, Murad said.

Pakistan's fight against the Taliban in the restive tribal areas comes as some in the U.S. fear that political instability is distracting from the military campaign. The current government came to power in February in part by promising to make peace in the Northwest Frontier, including by signing peace deals with the militants.

But in the last month the Frontier Corps, the underfunded front-line troops based in the northwest, began an operation against militants in both Bajour and Swat that has not stopped. And the government has increased its rhetorical fight against the militants.

On Monday the de facto interior minister "banned" the Taliban. The move, a largely ceremonial one, freezes the Taliban's bank accounts and imposes a 10-year jail sentence on anyone who supports them financially.

The day before, the government brushed aside an offer by the Taliban to surrender in order to hold peace talks. Rehman Malik, the prime minister's advisor on interior affairs, told reporters the government wouldn't talk with the Taliban until it gave up its weapons and renounced a campaign that killed almost 100 people in 4 suicide bombings last week.