Pakistani Taliban seize tribal town, six killed

By Alamgir Bitani

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani militants loyal to Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud captured a town at the entrance to the South Waziristan tribal region on Monday after a battle with pro-government tribesmen, police said.

At least six people, four tribesmen and two militants, were killed in the fighting for control of Jandola town, the gateway to Waziristan, they said.

"The Taliban have taken over Jandola," and taken seven tribesmen hostage, the area's police chief, Barkat Ullah, told Reuters.

A Taliban spokesman said nine people, including seven tribesmen, had been killed and the Taliban had abducted 10 pro-government fighters.

Waziristan is the power base of Mehsud, who leads the Pakistani Taliban, has close links with al Qaeda, and is accused by the authorities of being behind a wave of suicide attacks since mid-2007, including the one that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto in December.

The attacks have tapered off since a new governing coalition, formed after the February general election and led by Bhutto's party, opened talks with Mehsud and other militants through tribal elders to end the violence.

But sectarian violence and kidnappings have surged in the tribal areas and several parts of the adjoining North West Frontier Province in recent weeks.

Suspected pro-Taliban militants kidnapped 17 policemen on Sunday night from posts on the Khyber Pass, the vital supply route for Western forces in Afghanistan.

The Khyber area had been virtually free of militant violence until this year but security has deteriorated sharply in recent months.

Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan was kidnapped in February while traveling through the Khyber Pass, and the Taliban militants holding him freed him in May. Several aid workers have also been kidnapped in the region.

Rival militant factions have been battling to control the area and up to 15 people were killed and dozens wounded in fighting at the weekend.

Separately, authorities in the Kurram tribal region, to the west of Khyber, found the bodies of eight truck drivers kidnapped when Sunni Muslim militants attacked a food convoy going into a Shi'ite region last week.

Four drivers were killed in the attack last Thursday and security forces backed by helicopter gunships retaliated, killing five of the militants.

(Additional reporting by Ibrahim Shinwari and Kamran Haider; Writing by Zeeshan Haider, editing by Tim Pearce)