PESHAWAR, Pakistan, March 31, (AFP): US missiles and clashes between Pakistani troops and militants killed up to 36 people, including five soldiers, as pre-dawn violence swept the tribal badlands on the Afghan border Wednesday.
Pakistan’s fight against militants and a covert US drone war against Taleban and al-Qaeda leaders is concentrated in the mountains of Pakistan’s northwest border area which Washington calls the most dangerous region on earth.
Unmanned US aircraft fired three missiles that destroyed a compound in the North Waziristan, a stronghold of Afghan Taleban and al-Qaeda affiliates, killing six suspected militants, Pakistani security officials said.
Washington considers the semi-autonomous tribal belt the headquarters of al-Qaeda and accuses militants there of plotting and staging attacks on the 126,000 US and NATO-led troops fighting a nearly nine-year war in Afghanistan.

The missiles struck a compound owned by Zamir Khan, a local tribesman, in the village of Tapi, about 20 kms (13 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan, security officials said.
The identities of the dead were not immediately clear, nor whether they included any high-value targets.  The area is a known stronghold of the Haqqani network active in attacks on US troops in Afghanistan and of Afghan warlord Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who is reputed to control up to 2,000 fighters in the nine-year Afghan insurgency. After the first attack at about 12:45 am (1945 GMT) residents saw flames leaping out of the compound and said more drones were hovering over the area, preventing them from collecting the dead.
North Waziristan has been increasingly targeted by US drones since a Jordanian al-Qaeda double agent blew himself up, killing seven CIA employees in a neighbouring Afghan province in December.
Under US pressure, Pakistan has in the past year significantly increased operations against militants in its tribal belt.
Paramilitary and soldiers are pressing a new offensive against the Taleban into a second week in the tribal district of Orakzai in a bid to eradicate those believed to have fled a major offensive in South Waziristan last year.
But in the tribal district that straddles NATO supply lines, militants armed with guns and rockets attacked a military camp, sparking clashes that killed five soldiers and dozens of fighters, officials said.
Troops repelled the militants from storming the paramilitary Frontier Corps camp in the lawless northwest tribal district of Khyber and the ensuing gunbattle left 25 rebels said, military and local officials said.
Khyber is the main route from northwest Pakistan across the mountains into neighbouring Afghanistan and the main land supply route for US and NATO-led troops fighting a nine-year insurgency across the border.
Around 100 militants launched an attack on the camp in Jansi near Bara town around 2:00 am (2100 GMT), local administration chief Shafirullah Wazir told AFP. Five soldiers were killed in the attack, he said.

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SARGODHA: A Pakistani court on Wednesday formally opened the trial of five Americans charged with terrorism and plotting attacks, which could see them jailed for life, lawyers said.
The five men aged 19 to 25 have denied the charges. The prosecution brought witnesses to the anti-terrorism court convened under tight security at a jail in the eastern city of Sargodha, where they were arrested in December.
“The formal trial has begun,” defence lawyer Hassan Katchela told AFP.
The five were indicted on March 17 on charges of funnelling money to outlaws and plotting a terror attack “within Pakistan or an allied country”. Although those countries have not been named, Pakistani officials say the men planned to travel to neighbouring
Afghanistan and join up with Taleban-led militants who have been fighting US and NATO troops for more than eight years.
The suspects say they wanted to travel to Afghanistan only for charity work.
The five have been named as Umar Farooq, Waqar Hussain, Rami Zamzam, Ahmad Abdullah Mini and Amman Hassan Yammer.
Reporters were barred from the closed-court session.
Katchela said the prosecution produced five witnesses on Wednesday, out of a total of 23, including four staff from hotels in the cities of Lahore, Karachi and Hyderabad, where the men had stayed, and a police officer.
The hotel staff were cross-examined and the defence found several “contradictions and discrepancies,” Katchela said.