Pakistani troops kill 21 in clashes with militants

KOHAT, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani troops killed 17 Taliban militants when they opened fire on their explosive-packed vehicles on Friday, security officials said, a day after a deadly strike against the military.

A security official in North West Frontier province said the 17 militants were traveling in two vehicles through the town of Hangu when they were ordered to surrender. They had been found to be carrying explosives.

"We were expecting them to give up but they suddenly jumped into their vehicles and tried to flee," said the security official, who declined to be identified.

"Security forces opened fire at the vehicles, which then caught fire and blew up," he said.

Provincial police chief Malik Naveed confirmed the death of at least 11 militants but said they were killed in an exchange of gunfire with security officials at a checkpoint.

Separately on Friday, soldiers killed four pro-Taliban militants who took part in a pre-dawn attack on a military post in the South Waziristan region on the Afghan border, intelligence officials said.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan is on the front line of the U.S.-led war against terrorism and al Qaeda-linked militants have unleashed a wave of violence across the country over the past year, bombing military camps, patrols and vehicles.

The violence, combined with political uncertainty, has helped undermine investor confidence and send the country's financial markets on a downward spiral.

On Thursday, two suicide bombers killed 67 people outside Pakistan's main defense industry complex, a grim reminder to the feuding coalition parties ruling Pakistan of the dangers facing the country.

A Pakistani Taliban spokesman said Thursday's blasts in the town of Wah, 30 km (20 miles) northwest of Islamabad, were in retaliation for military operations against militants in the northwestern region of Bajaur, on the Afghan border.

He threatened more attacks.

Violence in Pakistan subsided when a coalition government that came to power after an election last February opened talks with militants. But it picked up again after their top leader, Baitullah Mehsud, suspended talks in June.

This week's resignation of staunch U.S. ally Pervez Musharraf as president has raised questions about the government's commitment to tackle violence.

But while Musharraf's support for the U.S.-led war on terrorism was deeply unpopular, the government has vowed to keep up efforts to fight the militants.

(Additional Reporting by Alamgir Bitani and Hafiz Wazir; Writing by Augustine Anthony; Editing by Robert Birsel and Paul Tait)