Fighting Between Tribes And Outside Militants Grows In Largely Lawless Region Of Pakistan

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, March 21 — Fighting between Central Asian militants and local tribespeople in northern Pakistan intensified Wednesday, raising the toll to 110 people killed since Monday, government and security officials said.

The fighting was taking place in the tribal area of South Waziristan, where Uzbek and Arab militants along with elements from the Taliban and Al Qaeda have strengthened their grip over the last year.

The outside militants, allies of the Taliban, took refuge in the region after the American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, and have used it as a staging ground to fight American and NATO forces across the border.

At first the foreign militants, bringing money and arms, were welcomed by tribesmen. But they have steadily gained strength and usurped tribal leaders, becoming more powerful than even the military and the local tribal police in an area where Pakistan’s central government exerts little authority.

Over the last two years the foreign militants have imposed a reign of terror, killing more than 200 tribal leaders and people whom they accused of being “American spies.”

The brutality of some of the foreign militants has led to rising tensions with their Pakistani hosts. Last year, Pakistani intelligence officials estimated that the foreign militants numbered as many as 2,000, as the region saw a new influx, particularly from Uzbekistan.

Now the open fighting and heavy casualties appear to signal a severe break in relations. At least 79 Uzbek fighters have been killed in the flare-up, according to figures given by a senior security official, along with 31 local tribespeople and their supporters since fighting began Monday.

“There was a brief lull last night, but things escalated this morning and there was some heavy fighting,” the official said. On Wednesday he said that both sides had entered into a temporary truce to retrieve bodies. “This is just for a few hours,” he said.

The administration in South Waziristan confirmed the figure but said it expected the casualty figure on the Uzbek side to rise further because of continuing fighting.

“There is fighting going on, and bodies are lying around,” said one administration official. “There is no way to retrieve the bodies.”

Government and security officials said both sides were using heavy weapons and pounding each other’s positions with shells and rockets. “The Uzbeks are well dug in,” the senior government official said. “They are die-hard fighters. Their backs are anyway pushed against the wall. There is no fall back.”

Much of the fighting was by local tribesmen trying to drive out the outsiders from Wana, South Waziristan’s regional headquarters. The security official said that Uzbeks in neighboring North Waziristan were trying to come to Wana and support their brethren, but the authorities were confident that they could stop them from entering the region. These sources told the Pakistani newspaper Dawn that the militant commander Maulavi Nazir, who is siding with his people against foreign fighters, had taken 61 Uzbeks hostages.

Officials said that efforts by Taliban leaders to broker a cease-fire failed and a tribal parliamentarian from South Waziristan, Maulana Mirajuddin, was heading toward the embattled region to make another bid for cessation of hostilities.

“This is a tribal uprising against Uzbeks,” the administrator for South Waziristan, Hussainzada Khan, said in an interview from Wana.

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