Army Plans Offensive in Pakistan's Northwest

Pitched Battles Follow Killing Of 17 Troops by Insurgents

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 19 -- The Pakistani army fought pitched battles with militants Wednesday in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan following an insurgent assault that killed 17 troops.

The fighting in North Waziristan, an area where the al-Qaeda leadership is believed to be active, went on late into the night, residents said. A local official confirmed that at least six loud explosions were heard in the hills that surround Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan. It was not immediately clear who or what had been targeted.

The fighting came during a period of deep turmoil in Pakistan, with radical fighters carrying out a string of deadly attacks after a government raid against a mosque in Islamabad last week.

On Sunday, Taliban fighters in North Waziristan renounced a controversial peace deal that had held for 10 months and had prevented the military from carrying out operations in the area. The deal angered U.S. officials, who considered it a primary reason why al-Qaeda was able to reorganize.

Pakistani officials have tried to revive the deal, but those efforts appeared to break down Wednesday as the violence in North Waziristan escalated.

Early Wednesday morning, Taliban fighters launched a well-coordinated strike against a group of soldiers, killing 17 and wounding more than a dozen. The fighters first hit the troops with a roadside bomb, then with an ambush. In a separate attack in North Waziristan, one soldier and six civilians were injured, and clashes later in the day left five Taliban fighters dead, the military said. Early on Thursday, a suicide bomber killed seven and injured 22 at a police training center in the northwest city of Hangu.

More than 100 people -- most of them members of the security forces -- have been killed in attacks in recent days. Military officials vowed Wednesday to strike back.

"There will now be a full-scale military action against Taliban hideouts in the entire tribal areas," a Pakistani brigadier general said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the record.

A second brigadier general, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Pakistani army was receiving help from the U.S. military in tracking the fighters, including aerial surveillance from U.S.-supplied drones.

The officials added that the government would still attempt to negotiate with relatively moderate tribal leaders in hopes of cleaving them from hard-core militants. A jirga, or assembly, was planned for Thursday with that goal in mind.

The United States has long been pushing Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to do more to counter the extremist threat. A U.S. intelligence estimate released Tuesday highlighted his government's shortcomings, noting that al-Qaeda has been able to reestablish itself in the ungoverned areas of northwestern Pakistan.

"President Musharraf attempted to engage in . . . carrot diplomacy with tribal leaders in the tribal areas and it didn't work," White House spokesman Tony Snow said Wednesday. "So what you have to do when something doesn't work is you have to fix it, and that's what's going on now."