Afghan militants enter Pakistan, attack villages

Hundreds of militants crossed from Afghanistan and attacked several border villages in Pakistan on Wednesday, triggering shootouts with local militias that killed at least five people, police said.

It was the latest in a spate of such cross-border attacks, which have raised tensions between Kabul and Islamabad and undermined efforts on both sides to crack down on al-Qaida and the Taliban.

Pakistan has complained that militants coming from Afghan bases have killed at least 55 members of the security forces and tribal police over the last month. Afghan officials have complained that Pakistan has launched hundreds of rockets into eastern Afghanistan since May, killing at least 40 people.

Paramilitary troops and police were sent to the villages attacked Wednesday in Upper Dir district to help armed Pakistani tribesmen there who were trying to fend off the insurgents, local police official Gul Fazal Khan said.

The militants torched two schools and a mosque in the village of Nusrat Dara, and destroyed a school in the adjoining village of Saro Kili, said Ghulam Mohammed, a top government official in Upper Dir. They used rockets, mortars and heavy machine guns along with assault rifles.

Security forces killed three militants and captured three others during the fighting, he said. Two members of a militia fighting the militants were killed and two others wounded, he added.

Information from the area is difficult to verify independently because it is remote and dangerous.

Hundreds of militants staged a similar cross-border attack against villages in Upper Dir on June 1, sparking three days of fighting that killed at least 25 soldiers and three civilians, according to local officials.

Pakistan has pressed Afghanistan to do more to control its side of the border and prevent insurgents from crossing. It also blames the US for the recent attacks after many American forces pulled out of Afghanistan's eastern Kunar province over the last year to focus on more populated areas.

The Pakistani army denies it has intentionally fired rockets into Afghanistan, but acknowledges that several rounds fired at militants conducting cross-border attacks may have landed over the border.

Also on Wednesday, a rare gun battle broke out between the army and militants in the North Waziristan tribal area after the insurgents attacked a military convoy heading toward the Afghan border, said intelligence officials. The firefight started around 11 a.m. and was still going on in mid-afternoon, when the army called in helicopter gunships for support, the officials said.

Four militants and one civilian were killed in the crossfire, and 10 other people were wounded, including five army troops, four militants and one civilian. The officials giving the toll spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

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