WANA, Sept 12: Thirteen people, including five soldiers, were killed in fierce clashes between security forces and militants in an area inhabited largely by the Mahsud tribe in South Waziristan on Sunday, sources said.

Local authorities denied any army casualty in the day-long fighting that broke out at dawn. However, ISPR director-General Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan told a private TV channel that security forces had suffered casualties. He declined to provide details, saying the fighting was still continuing.

The same TV channel claimed that 26 people had been killed in Sunday's fighting. An official here said seven militants had been killed in the clashes, whereas the number of wounded could not be ascertained.

According to unofficial reports, the death toll on both sides during the four-day clashes has reached 100. Pakistan Air Force jets and helicopter gunships were seen pounding the bases of militants in the Karwan Mayanz area in the South Waziristan tribal region.

Officials in Peshawar said army troops, backed by Cobra helicopters, were targeting militants' positions in Karwan Mayanz, while paramilitary were operating in the Makin bazaar area.

The sources said fighting between security forces and militants began in the Makin area after tribal elders rejected a request by the local authorities to provide security forces a safe passage through an area dominated by the Mahsud tribe.

They said an influential tribal elder of the area, Abdullah Mahsud, had refused to provide access to security forces from South Waziristan to the North Waziristan region.

Abdullah Mahsud was released from Guantanamo Bay a few months back. He was arrested in Afghanistan after the US-led forces removed the Taliban government. This is the first encounter between security forces and Mahsud tribesmen since the launch of the operation to flush out foreign militants in the region.

The sources said supporters of Abdullah Mahsud had blocked the road linking Makin with the Razmak sub-division in North Waziristan. His supporters had taken up positions on hill-tops and other key locations in and around the Makin area, about 60km north of Wana.

The sources said most of the fighters were youngsters who had rejected the request of the elders and ulema to stop fighting. Area people said both sides were using heavy weapons. Army and paramilitary forces have been backed by PAF jets and helicopter gunships, while the ground forces were using long-range artillery.

Loud explosions were heard in Wana after security forces called support of the helicopter gunships at around 12 noon. According to some reports, intense artillery shelling forced local people to shift women and children to safe places. Security forces have cordoned off the entire area.

The authorities have called a jirga of elders and ulema of the Mahsud tribe in Peshawar on Tuesday to de-escalate the situation. Meanwhile, political authorities have served notices on residents of the Civil Officers Colony and doctors of the agency headquarters hospital in Miramshah, asking them to vacate the area, our correspondent Pazir Gul adds from Miramshah.

Officials said the local administration had asked the tenants to vacate their houses where senior military officials would be lodged. They said Political Administrator of North Waziristan Dr Fakhr Alam held a meeting with local ulema and elders, seeking their support to defuse tension in the area.

ISPR CHIEF: Director-General of the ISPR, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan has said that 'six to eight' people were killed in clashes with the security forces in the South Waziristan tribal region near Afghan border where over 60 militants died last week, adds Reuters.