Ten militants, two soldiers killed in Pakistan clash

MIRANSHAH: Pakistani security forces killed 10 pro-Taliban militants on Wednesday after an early morning attack on a check-post near the Afghan border left two soldiers dead, the military said.

The fighting erupted in the troubled tribal region of North Waziristan, where the US military said a day earlier that Al-Qaeda was re-emerging despite the presence of Pakistani troops.

Pakistani military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said that militants raided the post near the town of Mir Ali before dawn, killing two soldiers and wounding another four.

"Ten miscreants were killed in the clash," Arshad said. "The situation is now quiet."

Security officials in the region said earlier that troops responded with artillery fire after the militants attacked with rockets.

The US military in Afghanistan said on Tuesday it expected Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network to continue its "re-emergence" in the Pakistani tribal areas along the frontier with Afghanistan.

A peace deal signed between the Pakistani government and militants in September 2006 in North Waziristan -- one of seven semi-autonomous tribal zones -- broke down in July.

Violence has spiked in Pakistan since the collapse of the deal and after Pakistani forces staged a bloody raid on the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad at about the same time.

The mosque is due to reopen on Wednesday on orders of the Supreme Court.