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Khar: Pakistani forces on Monday trained gunfire and dropped bombs on Islamic militants in and around the main town of a tribal region next to the Afghan border, forcing thousands of residents to flee, witnesses said.
At least seven people have been killed in recent bombardments, area residents said.
Bursts of gunfire could be heard in Khar, the main town in the Bajur tribal region, on Monday. Few people were moving in the streets, as security forces continued to attack militants staking out positions.
The US has urged Pakistan to crack down on insurgents in the thinly governed tribal belt along the frontier, which is considered a haven for militants attacking government and Nato troops in Afghanistan.
The new government has instead sought to strike peace deals with Pakistani insurgent groups, though with little obvious success.
Details of the fighting in Bajur have been sketchy, with few officials responding to calls and conflicting claims emerging on casualties.
So far, officials have said at least 100 militants and nine paramilitary troops have died in clashes that began last week in Bajur. Witnesses on Sunday and Monday said aerial bombardments killed at least seven people, but it was unclear who the victims were.
At least one person died when a bomb fell on a hardline seminary in the Mamund area, witness Shireen Jan said.
Witnesses said bombs also struck the house of a relative of Faqir Mohammed - a top Taliban leader - in Tang Khata, a village 5 miles outside Khar. Pakistani media also reported that houses linked to Mohammad were targeted.
Sardar Khan, a local police official, said Sunday that two spells of aerial bombing destroyed about 40 houses in several villages. He said bombs struck a school occupied by Taliban fighters in the Loi Sam area, a key focus of the fighting.
Witnesses and local media reported that thousands of people were fleeing their villages in search of safer areas, with many heading north into the Dir region.
Also Monday, the bodies of two men beheaded by militants were found about 12 miles north of Khar along with a note accusing them of spying for US and Pakistani authorities, said Fawad Khan, an area resident. Militants in the tribal belt have routinely killed alleged spies.
In Peshawar, the capital of the North West Frontier Province, an explosion killed one man and wounded another pparently as they were planting a bomb near a private clinic on Monday, said Khurshid Khan, a city police officer. It was unclear why they might have targeted the facility.
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