Pakistan strikes militant hideouts

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani security forces, backed by helicopter gunships, launched an attack on hideouts being used by pro-Taliban militants in North Waziristan on Tuesday, an army official said.

A doctor in Miranshah, the main town in the tribal region bordering Afghanistan, said his hospital received three wounded people, including two children.

Witnesses in the Degan area some 25 km (17 miles) west of Miranshah, said the helicopters destroyed three houses. They also said the army was using mortars and artillery.

"As soon as firing began we ran out and during that a bomb hit our house," Attaullah Jan, one of the wounded, said from a hospital bed. The army official, requesting anonymity, said the operation was launched at around 5:00 a.m. after intelligence that militants were hiding in the area. He said fighting was continuing some seven hours after the operation began.

A Reuters reporter in Miranshah had earlier seen eight helicopter gunships heading in the direction of Degan.

North Waziristan is regarded as a hotbed of support for the Taliban and al Qaeda, and an army offensive has been anticipated since militants late last month abandoned a peace pact struck with the government last September.

U.S. officials have said they expect Pakistan to strike at select targets in a region where they say al Qaeda has regrouped and is planning for operations elsewhere in the world.

There have been several clashes between Pakistani troops and militants over the past few weeks as the army has gone on the front foot, reinforcing checkposts and carrying out more patrols.

Militants have struck back with a series of attacks, sometimes using suicide bombers, in Waziristan and elsewhere in North West Frontier Province.

There were also two suicide attacks last month in the capital Islamabad, where security has been stepped up in the aftermath of an army siege and assault on Red Mosque, or Lal Masjid, to stamp out a Taliban-style movement.

More than 200 people have been killed in bomb attacks and clashes between militants and security forces since trouble broke out at the Red Mosque in early July, while at least 102 people were killed in the fighting at the mosque itself.