PESHAWAR/WANA, July 12: A minor girl was killed and at least 14 people, including six members of security forces, were wounded as fierce clashes between militants and paramilitary forces continued in the troubled South Waziristan region on Monday.

The three-day-long intense fighting between security forces and militants is taking a heavy toll on civilians as a large number of families were seen moving to safer places to escape the relentless shelling, eyewitnesses said.

At least six soldiers were wounded, two of them seriously, when an army vehicle hit a land-mine in Azam Warsak near the Afghan border. The seriously wounded soldiers were flown to Peshawar.

Witnesses said the army vehicle was carrying water for soldiers when it hit the explosive device on the road. Inter services Public Relations (ISPR) Director-General Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan confirmed the incident, but did not give exact figures of casualties.

Talking to Dawn by telephone, the spokesman said that unprovoked attacks by militants were inviting the artillery response from the army as overall situation in the region was under control.

Unofficial reports said that the militants had destroyed a checkpoint of the security forces in the Pine-forest-covered Mantoi area, north of Shkai, on Sunday night. The number of casualties could not be ascertained in that attack.

Thousands of paramilitary forces and army soldiers and hardened militants were exchanging heavy artillery shells and machineguns fire and missiles, targeting each other round the clock.

The government has estimated that about 500 to 600 foreign militants are hiding in mountainous parts of the South Waziristan along the Afghan border. Reports collected from different sources said that one minor girl was killed and eight others, including four women, were wounded in Santoi, Mantoi, Dand and Owarbad areas, north of Shakai.

In Dand area an artillery shell hit a house of a tribesman in Malikshahi, wounding four women. Four people, including two children, were wounded seriously when a shell hit the house of Kalam Mahsud in Owarbad area while a religious seminary also came under attack in Santoi area.

The building was partially damaged. Reports said that the ongoing clashes between the troops and the foreign militants and their local supporters had badly affected life in the region.

In a related development, contingents of the Frontier Corps entered the Shakai Valley on Monday to set up checkpoints in the area following an agreement reached between the government and local tribes last week.

Fata Security Secretary Brig (retd) Mehmood Shah, Political Agent Asmatullah Gandapur, former Senator Malik Faridullah Khan and MNA Maulana Abdul Malik visited the area which was opened after a month-long siege.

A handout issued here on Monday said that Sperkai, Khomakhe, Shodakai and Khojal Khel tribes of the Ahmadzai Wazir while Miami and Malakshahi tribes of the Utmanzai Wazir tribe had assured an allout support to the government in its fight against foreign militants.

The tribes have also furnished a guarantee of Rs10 million to protect civilian and military installations and assist the government in development activities in the area.

AFGHAN REFUGEES: Afghan refugees were on Monday seen moving out of the South Waziristan region to meet a three-day deadline given to them by the government to leave the area, dpa adds.

The local administration in the region near the Afghan border on Sunday gave an estimated 42,000 refugees in the area three days to leave, saying it would not be responsible for any "mishap" after the expiry of the deadline scheduled to end on Wednesday.

"We have counted at least 13 trucks carrying refugees and travelling towards D.I. Khan," local resident Allah Noor told Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa). The Afghan refugees have been living in the area for the last three decades.

Many of them had already started to leave since the security situation began to deteriorate in the wake of anti-terror operations against suspected Al Qaeda suspects holed up in the region. "Most of them (refugees) are moving to neighbouring towns and there are a few opting to go back to their country," Noor said.