WANA, April 5: The tribal Lashkar set up to fight the hardened Uzbek militants hiding in Shin Warsak and Kaloosha areas of the restive South Waziristan Agency has sought air and ground support from the government.

According to sources, the request for support was made by Lashkar Commander Malik Shrin Jan at a jirga which was attended by tribal elders and armed volunteers. All nine sub-clans of the predominant Ahmadzai Wazir tribe raised the Lashkar on Monday to flush out Uzbeks and their local supporters from the area.

Some 900 volunteers have joined the Lashkar.Malik Shrin claimed that the volunteers had encircled the Uzbek militants in Kaloosha, Zaghundai and Shin Warsak areas of the agency and they required air and artillery support from security forces.

He said the tribal volunteers had besieged the Uzbek militants in these areas and their escape routes had been sealed. “The Lashkar needs government’s assistance,” Shrin Jan said.

Meanwhile, a senior official in the South Waziristan Agency said the political authorities had yet to receive any formal request from tribesmen for air and ground support. “The government will look into the request once we get it,” the officials said.

Security officials said sporadic clashes continued in various parts of the agency and rival groups targeted each other’s positions with heavy arsenals.

Denying reports that the tribal Lashkar had inflicted heavy casualties on the foreign militants, the sources said that only three bodies of Uzbeks were found in the Shin Warsak area on Thursday.

Residents said Commander Shirin Jan’s brother Akbar Jan had been wounded in a clash and was taken to a hospital in Wana. They said the volunteers had surrounded the house of militant commander Noor Islam.

APP adds from Islamabad: ISPR Director-General Maj-Gen Wahid Arshad on Thursday said that so far 200 to 220 foreign militants and their supporters had been killed in clashes which started last month.

In an interview to a private TV channel, he said the local tribesmen had started the action after an agreement with the government that they would drive the foreign elements out of their area.

The tribesmen had also given an undertaking that they would not allow anyone to use their area for terrorism and militancy, he added.