By Griff Witte and Imtiaz Ali
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, August 20, 2007; A11

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 19 -- For the second time in two months, a truce designed to curb militancy in the tribal areas of northwestern Pakistan was declared void this weekend by Taliban fighters.

The apparent collapse of the deal in the restive South Waziristan area followed the scrapping of a similar deal in neighboring North Waziristan in July, and comes as there are escalating tensions in both areas. On Sunday, the Pakistani military reported killing 15 insurgent fighters near the town of Mir Ali in North Waziristan.

The semiautonomous tribal region that forms Pakistan's northwestern border with Afghanistan has long been a haven for Islamic fighters, and it has recently been highlighted by the United States as a sanctuary for al-Qaeda.

Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, had focused on the peace deals as a way to combat rising extremism in his country without relying on military force. But the cease-fires had come under intense scrutiny from critics who said they amounted to capitulation to the fighters.

The collapse of the South Waziristan deal intensifies pressure on Musharraf, who is struggling to remain in office, to come up with a new strategy.

A spokesman for Baitullah Mehsud, the top Taliban commander in South Waziristan, said the group was backing out of the deal because more Pakistani troops were entering the area. "Instead of respecting the accord, the government has been continuously pushing us to the wall," said the spokesman, Zulfiqar Mehsud. "The advance movement of the Pakistan army in our area is a violation of the agreement."

Baitullah Mehsud is suspected of involvement in the kidnapping of 16 paramilitary soldiers last week, as well as numerous other attacks in recent years.

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam said government officials were meeting with tribal elders in a bid to maintain peace in the Waziristan area. She said the government would continue to follow "a comprehensive approach" to combating militancy in the region that included negotiation, economic incentives and, if necessary, military force.

As recently as the spring, Pakistani officials were asserting that the South Waziristan deal was succeeding. They pointed to fighting between the area's tribesmen and foreign radicals as evidence that local people could police their own territory without heavy involvement from the army.

The February 2005 deal called for the military to curtail its activity in the area in return for a promise from rebel groups that they would not attack army posts.

Retired Brig. Mehmood Shah, who was a top tribal area official at the time, said the deal was plagued from the start by poor implementation, with Pakistan's military giving Taliban leaders concessions that were not part of the original agreement.

Still, he said, the agreement's collapse is a foreboding sign. "The termination of the second peace deal in a month's time will create problems for the government," Shah said.

Maulana Miraj Uddin, a member of parliament from South Waziristan, said he would try to revive the deal, which he credited with helping to create relative calm. "I wish this would not happen because the annulment of the peace accord will again usher in an era of unrest and bloodshed for the people of Waziristan," he said.

Ali reported from Peshawar, Pakistan.