Pakistan Claims a Victory in Effort Against Al Qaeda

After five days of clashes in the western tribal lands, the Pakistani military announced Monday that it had completed its combat operation against suspected Al Qaeda supporters and had killed more than 70 militants.

But even as officials declared their success, three Pakistani security men were killed when their truck was destroyed by a remote-controlled bomb left on a road outside Miran Shah, the main town of the border region of North Waziristan. After the attack, Pakistani officials arrested several tribal leaders in the area.

The Waziristan area near the Afghan border has been the site of tension for several months. Pakistani military officials say tribal leaders have sheltered large numbers of foreign fighters and Al Qaeda operatives. At the urging of the U.S., Pakistan deployed 70,000 troops to hunt down militants and protect the border from infiltration.

The campaign by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has angered the semiautonomous tribes in the region, from which the government has barred foreign journalists.

Last Wednesday, after a roadside ambush in South Waziristan killed 15 security personnel, Pakistani troops launched another attack on militant hide-outs, backed by helicopter gunships and jet fighters.

On Friday, the government announced that more than 40,000 Afghan refugees in the area would be resettled in another district of western Pakistan. Jamshedul Hassan of the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees said Monday that they would be moved to an emergency camp with the help of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

Also Monday, Pakistani officials announced the arrest of another alleged militant in the volatile southern port city of Karachi.

Dawood Badini, a reported leader of the Al Qaeda-linked group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, was captured in a raid on a home, said Maj. Gen. Javed Zia, head of the paramilitary rangers for the southern province of Sindh. Zia said Badini was responsible for attacks that had killed 99 members of the country’s Shiite Muslim minority in the last two years.

Battles between Shiite and Sunni Muslims have roiled Karachi in recent weeks. Gunmen ambushed a convoy carrying a top general Thursday in what officials said was retaliation for the Waziristan raids. On Sunday night, the government announced the arrest of several militants it said were responsible for the Karachi assault.

Times staff writer Nicholas Riccardi in Islamabad, Pakistan, and Associated Press contributed to this report.