PESHAWAR, Oct 20: Over 2,000 soldiers launched a hunt for the wanted militant commander, Abdullah Mehsud, and scores of his fighters in the South Waziristan tribal region on Wednesday.

The military fired long-range artillery from Sarwekai into Spinkay Raghzay. Cobra helicopter gunships helicopters were also used to pound militants' positions.

Two more security personnel were killed in the overnight fighting raising the death toll to five, although no casualty was reported on Wednesday.

Credible sources said one brigade of the Pakistan Army was pressed into action at the crack of dawn on Tuesday to flush out militants from Spinkay Raghzay and the adjoining areas.

The operation gained momentum following the Tuesday evening attack by militants on a military patrol in the area that left three soldiers dead and three wounded.

Security officials said two more soldiers had lost their lives in the ensuing battle while eight soldiers sustained injuries.

No casualties were reported about in Wednesday's fighting, but officials quoting unconfirmed reports said that at least six militants had been killed in the action.

"The militants are continuing to engage the troops and our forces are engaging them. The militants are using rockets, mortars and light arms to attack our forces," said a security official.

"We have reports about the presence of a large number of militants in that area and we are focusing on it," the official said.

"The way these guys are offering resistance and the sheer scale of it shows they are present there in a large number," he said.

Tribesmen said that a woman and two children were killed due to artillery fire on the house of a local, Shah Mehmood Mehsud Gorikhel. There were unconfirmed reports of the death of two other tribesmen, Abdul and Loi Khan Mehsud.

There was no way to confirm any civilian casualties as the authorities had disconnected telephone lines to the area.

In a related development, sources said, about a dozen security personnel who had gone missing following the Tuesday evening attack, re-established contact with their forces and were safe.

The sources said troops had planned to flush out a group of four to five Uzbek militants and their families from an old leather factory they had occupied in Spinkay Raghzay.

The troops, they said, were also concentrating on a local madressah the militants were using as a safe house, but the security forces had been instructed not to use any fire while cleaning up the seminary.

They said the forces had planned to clean up Morgaband and Kotkai area before moving into Malik Shahi near Spinkay Raghzay for capturing the 29-year-old militant, Abdullah Mehsud.

Officials said they wanted to capture the one-legged former Guantanamo detainee, who masterminded the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers on October 9, 2004.

Security officials believed that although Abdullah would frequently come to Spinkay Raghzay, chances of his presence in the area were slim. "He could be in Malik Shahi," one official speculated.

Dilawar Khan Wazir adds from Wana: A Wazir militant commander, Haji Muhammad Omar, on Wednesday warned that his fighters would resume attacks on government and security installations and forces if the government did not release all tribal prisoners and relocate troops from South Waziristan to the border within 10 days.

"The government should remove all checkpoints and relocate troops to the border. We will not tolerate any troops in Waziristan," he told Dawn on phone from an undisclosed location.

The government, he said, should also release the tribesmen captured during various operations. Omar, who succeeded Nek Muhammad following his death in a missile attack, said talks with Col Inamullah (retd), who was representing the government, had failed.

"We give the government 10 days to accept our demands or else our fighters would resume their attacks," he warned the government.

Another tribal mediator said negotiations with the militants had failed and that it was now up to the government to decide which course to take.

Our Staff Reporter adds from Islamabad: Five security forces personnel were killed by miscreants on Tuesday morning in an area close to where the Chinese engineer had been killed, the military authorities announced on Wednesday.

A press release issued by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said a convoy of security forces plying on routine logistic duties was fired at in Spinkay Raghzay, north of Jandola, by the miscreants at around 5:30am on Tuesday morning. As a result, five soldiers were killed while six others received injuries.

After the attack, the security forces cordoned off the area to carry out a search, it said.

The ISPR said Abdullah Mehsud, the tribal militant who masterminded the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers, used the same area for his hideout where he met a few journalists the same day.

In another incident, miscreants fired few rockets on Razmak High School, which resulted in injuring of a few students and caused damage to the house of the school teacher, the ISPR said.