Pakistan tribes raze Taliban houses after bombing

KOHAT, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani tribesmen exchanged fire with Taliban militants and destroyed their houses in a northwestern tribal region after a suicide attack killed at least 50 people, residents and officials said on Saturday.

Television channels put the death toll at as high as 80.

The bomber detonated a car loaded with explosives in the middle of a tribal council meeting in Orakzai region on Friday where hundreds of tribesmen were discussing a government-backed plan to raise a lashkar or tribal militia to evict militants.

Pakistan's tribal areas on the Afghan border are regarded as safe havens for al Qaeda and Taliban militants, and the government is under pressure from the United States to take stern action to stem the flow of insurgents to Afghanistan.

"Everyone is angry and upset here. The tribesmen attacked houses of the Taliban in Khadizai after the bombing. Two houses have been demolished," Noorzad Orakzai, a resident of the Khadizai area where attack took place, told Reuters by telephone.

"There have been exchanges of fire throughout the night. It's still going on," he added.

Suspected U.S. drones fired two missile on Saturday into a Pakistani region on the Afghan border killing three people, a Reuters witness and an intelligence official said.

It was the second such attack in North Waziristan tribal region this week. "The missiles were fired with a gap of a minute," the Reuters witness said from Miranshah, the main town of North Waziristan. "They caused huge blasts. I saw flames rising towards the sky after the explosions."

A senior government official in Orakzai told Reuters they had confirmation of 51 deaths from the car bombing and the toll could rise further. He said more than 100 people were injured, many of them critically.

The attack in Orakzai came a day after a suicide blast inside the heavily guarded police headquarters in the capital Islamabad in which eight policemen were wounded.

Orakzai has been the most peaceful of Pakistan's seven semi-autonomous tribal regions. Unlike most of the others, Orakzai does not border Afghanistan.

Militants have unleashed a wave of violence in Pakistan in recent months after the military launched major offensives against them in the rugged northwest including Bajaur and Swat regions.

On Saturday, a soldier and three militants were killed in clashes in Swat, security officials said.

JOINT SESSION

The mounting militant threat prompted the government to convene a closed joint session of the two-chamber parliament for a briefing by intelligence officials on internal security.

The parliamentarians are due to begin debate on the situation after Pakistan's newly appointed intelligence chief briefed them this week on the militant threat.

But a Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman criticized U.S. missile attacks into Pakistan, saying it will stoke public anger.

Since the start of September the United States has carried out at least 10 missile attacks, and a commando raid on militant targets in Pakistan's tribal areas.

"Such strikes will fuel anti-American sentiments which will neither be beneficial for us nor for the United States," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said.

(Writing by Zeeshan Haider; Editing by Richard Balmforth)

(For a blog on Pakistan, see http:/blogs.reuters.com/pakistan/)