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More than 100 dead in Pakistan militant clashes

At least 106 people have been killed in continuing clashes between foreign Al-Qaeda militants and pro-government tribesmen in northwest Pakistan, security officials said on Wednesday.

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Updated at 8:12 pm

WANA (Pakistan): Tribesmen loyal to the Pakistani government exchanged mortar and rocket fire with foreign Al-Qaeda militants for a third day on Wednesday, leaving at least 106 people dead, officials said.

Pakistani troops also shelled the Uzbek militants sheltering in the mountainous tribal area of South Waziristan, security officials and residents said, although a military spokesman denied the army was involved.

The fighting started on Monday after ex-Taliban commander Mullah Nazir, who backs President Pervez Musharraf's moves to expel foreign fighters from the area, ordered followers of Uzbek militant Tahir Yuldashev to disarm.

Officials said Yuldashev, who leads a group called the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, was formerly a close confidant of Osama bin Laden.

He has been sentenced to death in absentia for bombings in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent.

"At least 78 Uzbeks and their local supporters and 28 supporters of Mullah Nazir have died, including four children killed by a shell," a security official said.

More than half of the fatalities have occurred since last night, when Nazir gave the Uzbeks a deadline to leave Kalusha, the town where the violence has been centered.

Residents and a senior security official said troops launched shells at foreign militants early on Wednesday after the insurgents fired on their camp in Wana, the capital of South Waziristan.

Smoke was also seen billowing after army artillery destroyed two bunkers that militants had recently set up on the outskirts of the city to fight the local tribesmen, residents said.

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