Pakistani troops kill two dozen suspects in border search for al-

WANA, Pakistan -- Pakistani troops killed 24 suspects in a fierce crackdown Tuesday on al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives in the rugged tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, the army spokesman said.

At least eight Pakistani soldiers were killed and 15 wounded in the operation.

Troops attacked a large fortified mud-brick compound with mortar and machine gun fire shortly after 5 a.m. near Wana, in Pakistan's South Waziristan region, just a few miles from the Afghan border, army spokesman Gen. Shaukat Sultan told The Associated Press.

The operation was launched a day after the country's military president promised to rid the rugged tribal belt of 500 to 600 foreign terrorists he says were hiding there.

It also followed an announcement over the weekend that American forces were stepping up a sweep on the Afghan side of the border to capture al-Qaida and Taliban holdouts, including terror chief Osama bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

"We believe that 24 suspected terrorists have been killed," Sultan said of the Pakistan operation.

The majority of casualties appeared to be Pakistani tribesmen suspected of sheltering the terrorists, but Sultan said several of the dead also were foreigners presumed to be members of al-Qaida. There was no indication that any senior al-Qaida or Taliban leaders was among the dead.

Sultan said soldiers had only been able to retrieve a small number of the dead because of continued tension in the region, though the fighting had ended by Tuesday night. The bodies of all eight dead soldiers were taken to army headquarters at Wana.

About 700 paramilitary forces began the operation early Tuesday in Kaloosha, a village about six miles west of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan.

A Kaloosha resident, Qasim Khan, said paramilitary troops exchanged fire with people inside the compound, which consisted of several low buildings, surrounded by a high wall and several lookout towers. The fortress-like design is common in the lawless tribal belt.

It was unclear who was inside, but it was believed to belong to one of seven tribesmen from the Yargul Khel clan accused of harboring al-Qaida and Taliban suspects. The seven had refused to surrender to authorities.

"We are not allowed to go out of our homes," Khan told an Associated Press reporter by telephone from the besieged village.

The operation was the latest in a series of military sweeps in Pakistan's semiautonomous tribal regions.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf vowed on Monday to rid the areas of suspected terrorists, and acknowledged for the first time that 500- 600 foreigners were being sheltered in the region. He appealed to tribal elders for their cooperation in the counterterrorism drive.

His comments came one day in advance of a scheduled two-day visit to Pakistan and Afghanistan by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell.

On Monday, police defused a large car bomb outside the U.S. Consulate in the southern city of Karachi minutes before it was timed to explode.

U.S. forces in Afghanistan over the weekend announced the start of Operation Mountain Storm, a large-scale sweep to hunt down al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives believed to be hiding in the border region.

Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, a spokesman for the U.S. military in Afghanistan, said Tuesday that U.S. forces were involved in ongoing checkpoint and house searches and patrols in Paktika, the Afghan province bordering South Waziristan. He said American commanders "continue to coordinate and cooperate" with the Pakistanis, but would not say if there were any operations linked to the Wana crackdown.

Paktika Deputy Gov. Sadokhan Ambarkhil told AP he had no information about any military activity on the Afghan side of the border, but that drivers coming from the border region had told of U.S. forces carrying out an operation last Friday.

He had no details or firsthand information.

"We have no administration in those areas," he said.

Pakistan is a key ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism, but has faced criticism because rebels of al-Qaida and Afghanistan's former ruling Taliban regime are believed to still be launching attacks in Afghanistan from Pakistani soil.

Mehmood Shah, a government administrator for the tribal areas based in the northwestern city of Peshawar, said Tuesday's operation involved about 700 paramilitary soldiers.

The paramilitary forces blocked a road leading to Kaloosha from Wana and vehicles heading toward the village were turned back. An AP reporter could hear mortar fire.

A cleric issued an appeal by loudspeaker from Wana's main mosque for negotiations to end the fighting.

"People should go to Kaloosha to mediate a cease-fire so that ordinary people are saved from bloodshed," Bazid Khan said at the Pir Sultan mosque.

In the past two years, Pakistan has deployed 70,000 troops in the tribal areas for the first time since independence, and has staged five military operations.

Last month, Pakistan army troops using helicopter gunships and artillery raided several villages near Wana, capturing 25 people, none of whom was reported to be a top al-Qaida or Taliban figure.

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