The New Nation - Internet Edition

AFP, Islamabad

At least 10 Al-Qaeda-linked militants were killed Friday in a suspected US missile strike on a tribal area in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border, a senior security official told AFP.

"Several missiles struck a suspected Al-Qaeda hideout in North Waziristan and initial reports say 10 militants were killed," the official said on condition of anonymity.

An intelligence official also confirmed the number of dead, adding: "Most of the militants killed were foreigners."

Pakistan officials use the term "foreigners" to describe Al-Qaeda extremists. A series of recent strikes against suspected Al-Qaeda and Taliban hideouts in Pakistan's tribal badlands bordering Afghanistan-all blamed on unmanned CIA drones-have raised tensions between Washington and Islamabad. On Monday, Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari warned the new US commander for Iraq and Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, that the attacks were "counterproductive" and could harm the battle for hearts and minds here.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the country's military top brass also told the visiting Petraeus that the United States should respect Pakistani sovereignty and territorial integrity. Previous protests have seen Washington's ambassador to Islamabad, Anne Patterson, called in to the foreign ministry to hear the dissatisfication of Pakistani officials. And Pakistan's national security adviser also reportedly made a personal protest to White House officials in Washington after a strike in September that claimed the lives of civilians.

Another report adds: The death toll from a suicide bombing against government-backed tribal elders fighting Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in northwest Pakistan has risen to 22, officials said Friday. A suicide attacker blew himself up on Thursday as the elders met in Batmalai, about 40 kilometres (25 miles) northeast of Khar, the main town in the semi-autonomous Bajaur district bordering Afghanistan. "Five more people died overnight in different hospitals raising the death toll in the attack to 22," local police official Fazal-i-Rabi told AFP.

Security has been tightened across Bajaur since the attack, he added. Pakistan's tribal belt became a safe haven for hundreds of Al-Qaeda and Taliban extremists who fled the US-led toppling of Afghanistan's hardline Taliban regime in late 2001. Pakistani forces have been involved in fierce clashes with Al-Qaeda- and Taliban-linked militants since a military operation was launched in Bajaur in August.

The military said last month that some 1,500 rebels and 73 soldiers had died since the fighting began while hundreds more militants were captured.

Pakistan troops meanwhile killed at least four militants in Bajaur overnight.

"Our troops pounded artillery on militant hideouts in Cheharming, Chinar and Banda areas, killing four militants," local administration official Mohammad Jamil, told AFP.

Pakistan has been accused by the United States and Afghanistan of not doing enough to stop militants crossing the border to attack US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.

But Islamabad says its operation in Bajaur is proof that it is committed to crushing insurgents.

Security officials inspect the site of an earlier suicide attack in Mingora. At least 10 Al-Qaeda-linked militants were killed Friday in a suspected US missile strike on a tribal area in northwest Pakistan near the Afghan border, a senior security official told AFP