Clashes intensify in Pakistan's Taliban stronghold

Clashes between the Taliban and security forces in Pakistan's northwest tribal belt intensified Monday, as militants fired rockets and the military launched fresh air strikes, officials said.

Up to 15 people are reported to have been killed as fighter jets pounded the strongholds and hideouts of feared warlord Baitullah Mehsud, holed up in the lawless region, where the military are steeling for a full-scale offensive.

Security forces say they are wrapping up an eight-week campaign against Islamist militants in the northwest Swat valley and have opened up a second front against the Taliban chief along the Afghan border.

"Rockets fired from unknown locations hit camps of security forces in the rugged mountainous tribal regions of North and South Waziristan on Sunday night," a security official in the area said.

There were no reports of deaths in the attacks but one of 10 rockets targeting security forces in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, hit a house, wounding eight civilians from the same family, the official said.

Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal regions are wracked with violence and are known as a hub for Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels who fled across the border to escape the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.

South Waziristan is Mehsud's stronghold, and Washington -- which has been a vocal supporter of Islamabad's anti-Taliban push -- alleges that Al-Qaeda fighters are in the region plotting attacks on Western targets.

Security officials said Pakistani fighter jets targeted four villages in South Waziristan where Mehsud's militants are believed to be hiding.

"Eleven militants were killed and four others wounded when fighter jets pounded the compound of a local tribesman Malik Ameer in Kaniguram village, which was being used by rebels," a security official in the area said.

Just on the border between North and South Waziristan, fighter jets bombed the home of a local Taliban commander, killing four people, including two women, and wounding eight others, intelligence and tribal police officials said.

"Jet planes bombed the house of Jalal Afghani. According to my information militants were using this house," tribal police official Amanullah Wazir said.

"Two militants were killed and eight injured. Two others killed in the bombing were women -- maybe they were family members," he told AFP.

An intelligence official based in Miranshah confirmed the death toll in Shinkai village.

Pakistani fighter jets stepped up air raids in Waziristan early this month, apparently in preparation for a full-scale military onslaught into the hostile peaks to track down and eliminate Mehsud and his network.

The army says that more than 1,500 insurgents and 128 soldiers have been killed in operations the military launched in the northwestern districts of Lower Dir on April 26, Buner on April 28 and Swat on May 8.

Such tolls are impossible to independently verify.

Security forces launched the offensive to dislodge Taliban guerrillas from the three districts after rebels flouted a peace deal and thrust towards the capital Islamabad in early April.

Analysts say the army will face a tougher task uprooting militants from the tribal belt, where Taliban fighters are entrenched in the mountains and government holds little sway.