52 Uzbek, Pakistani fighters die in clashes

Fighting between local and foreign militants killed 52 people Friday, bringing to more than 200 the number of dead in recent days in a conflict between Pakistanis and suspected extremists, a senior official said.

Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said 45 Uzbek militants and seven tribesmen died in battles in South Waziristan, a lawless region used as a rear base by Taliban fighters in Afghanistan and where the U.S. fears that Al Qaeda is regrouping.

Since fighting began last week, 213 people have been killed, including 177 Uzbeks and their local allies, Sherpao said.

The minister said the conflict intensified Friday after foreigners failed to comply with an ultimatum from tribal elders to leave their territory. Security officials said tribal militias had fired rockets at several of the foreigners’ hide-outs.

South Waziristan is generally off-limits to journalists, making it hard to verify reports of the fighting.

Under pressure from the United States to do more against the Taliban and Al Qaeda, the Pakistani government has said that the violence in South Waziristan vindicates its policy of using traditional leaders, and not the army, to combat militancy along the Afghan border.

The government asserts that Maulvi Nazir, a tribal chief previously aligned with the Taliban, has come over to its side.

Some analysts, however, say militants with links to the Taliban and Al Qaeda are involved on both sides of the conflict in South Waziristan, which also pits local tribes against one another.

Hundreds of Central Asian and Arab militants linked to Al Qaeda fled to the semiautonomous region after the collapse of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001 and forged alliances with local tribes. Some Uzbeks opposed to the government of Uzbekistan have reportedly since joined them.