06 March 2005	Sunday	24 Muharram 1426

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MIRAMSHAH, March 5: Security forces killed two militants and captured 11 others after heavy exchange of fire with suspected militants in Deogar Sidgai area of North Waziristan Agency on Saturday morning, officials and eyewitnesses said.

Unofficial sources told Dawn that two army officers, including a captain and tribal woman, received injuries during the two-hour exchange of fire between the security forces and the militants.

An official of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) in Peshawar confirmed military action in the border town, but denied any casualty on the part of the security forces.

"The security forces have killed two militants and picked up 11 others, many of them are likely to be foreign nationals," the official said. While identification of the dead and the detainees was in progress, Shezar Khan, the owner of the compound where the gunfight took place, is also among the arrested persons.

"Two Arabs, including a Sudanese national, have been picked up from the house," a source told this correspondent.

Sources said that three army helicopters landed at Miramshah helipad at about 4pm to transport dead and arrested persons to an undisclosed location.

Military authorities said that foreign militants were regrouping in certain pockets of the tribal areas and the NWFP after security forces destroyed their sanctuaries in the volatile South Waziristan Agency.

The security forces conducted operation in the Lowara Mandai area of the North Waziristan Agency on Jan 15 and arrested 17 suspected persons. All the arrested persons were later on released after interrogations.

In Saturday's operation, officials said that hundreds of army and paramilitary troops swooped on a cluster of mud-brick houses near the Afghan border in the Sidgai area, about 18km west of Miramshah.

About 25 military trucks and jeeps, carrying army and paramilitary troops headed towards the Afghan border on Friday night who raided residential compound of a tribesman, Shezar Khan.

Sources said that two Arab nationals, some Central Asians and Pakistanis hailing from Punjab were arrested from the compound. Huge quantity of weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the house.

The security forces cordoned off the compound before dawn, which caused panic among its inhabitants. Witnesses said that beleaguered inmates of the compound fired on troops in an attempt to find a safe passage which was retaliated with full force.

After two hours of gunfight in which heavy weapons were used by both sides, the militants finally gave up resistance. The troops stormed the house of Shezar Khan and retrieved two bodies and weapons. Witnesses said that the security forces also took away the bodies.