WANA, Sept 10: Six militants and three army men, including a captain, were killed in a pre-dawn encounter on Friday in South Waziristan.

Official sources in Peshawar confirmed the army casualty in the clash with militants in Karwan Manza, about 72km from here. Two army jawans were wounded.

The dead and the wounded were first taken to the Government High School in Kanigoram and later flown to the army brigade headquarters in Wana. Local tribesmen, however, put the army casualties at seven, including Captain Suhail, but Director-General of ISPR, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan, said the figure was less than seven. "There have been casualties but the figure is less than seven," he told Dawn.

A anonymous caller claiming to speak on behalf of a tribal commander told Dawn that the 'mujahideen' had captured 43 soldiers in the late-night clashes and threatened that they would start executing them if the military did not cease its operations in the area.

Gen Sultan, however, rejected the claim. "This is all rubbish. Not a single soldier is missing or has been captured. These are all lies," he maintained. A security official said the regiment to which the 'captured' soldiers reportedly belonged was not operating in the South Waziristan region. "This is all ridiculous," he said.

The 'mujahideen' spokesperson said the Thursday bombing by Air Force jets had left 70 people dead, and among them only eight were 'mujahideen'. "The rest were civilians from local villages. There were women and children among them," he added.

Earlier, speaking at a press briefing in Peshawar, Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan denied that there were any civilian casualties in the Thursday raid on a terrorist training camp.

"This is an explicit statement. There were no civilian casualties. No women or children have been killed in the operation," Gen Sultan said while responding to a question. "There has been no collateral damage," he insisted.

The ISPR chief reiterated that among the 50 dead in the Thursday bombing, most were foreign militants. "If there were any locals, they were those who have been equally involved in terrorist activities. There is no question of them being innocent," he added.

He said he had a video of the training facility taken by planes shortly before the area was hit by a barrage of what he described precision-guided bombs that showed people receiving training.

"I have seen the video and it is so clear that one can even count the people on the ground," he claimed. He however, declined to show the video to the press, saying that it would be released at an 'appropriate time'.

The 'mujahideen' spokesman, however, denied the existence of any training camp in Bad Awaz Garang in Kiakhel. "There had been no training camp there. There was a mosque and a hujra and when the attack took place we all were sitting there," he said.

The security official told Dawn that a wanted Al Qaeda operative, Saiful Adel Al-Iraqi, and an Uzbek militant leader, Tahir Yaldashev, were reported to have been visiting the camp.

It, however, could not be known whether they were present there at the time of the attack. The ISPR spokesman said nobody from Al Qaeda's 'top hierarchy' was present at the camp when it was bombed.

Gen Sultan said among the six militants killed in the late-night clashes, five were confirmed foreigners, while the body of a local tribesman had been handed over to his family for burial.

An official in Peshawar said that among the five killed, two were Uzbeks, while one looked like an Arab. The identity of two others was being ascertained. He also that the security forces had captured five foreign militants whose nationalities were being ascertained.

The official reiterated the government's offer of amnesty to local and foreign militants if they renounced militancy and surrendered to the authorities for registration and furnished guarantees to live peacefully.

He warned that no suicide or any other terrorist attack could deter the government from eliminating terrorism from Pakistani soil. "We are determined to eliminate terrorism from Pakistan," he said.

Meanwhile, authorities in Wana dynamited a two-floor market owned by a leading tribal notable to punish him for creating discord among tribesmen over cooperation with the government and inciting people against the government.

Malik Baa Khan's brother Malik Ghaneem Khan told Dawn that the government had punished his brother for meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai. The tribal elder, Malik Ghaneem said, had gone to persuade the Afghan authorities to ask Pakistan to call off the operation in return for a pledge by the tribesmen that they would not allow any attacks against Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, reports last night spoke of a fresh round of clashes between militants and security forces in Bazai near the Ludda sub-division. The security forces are reported to have seized a high ground that has put them in an advantageous position against the militants. The authorities have summoned Abdullai Mehsud tribesmen for a meeting on Saturday to discuss a plan on dealing with militants in the area.