Pak troops clash with militants: 6 killed

Clashes broke out when militants fired on an army convoy Wednesday on the outskirts of the mountainous Shakai valley, near the South Waziristan district capital Wana.

Shakai has been used by al-Qaeda fugitives to hide and run training camps since they fled Afghanistan in the wake of the US-led ouster of their former Taliban hosts.

In the ensuing clash rockets fired by militants strayed into a residential area, causing civilian casualties, military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said.

"There were some civilian casualties, we don't have any figure," Sultan told AFP.

Residents said a mortar landed on the home of a tribal elder in Shakai, killing two men, one woman and three children.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's intelligence agencies are hunting a pair of top north African al-Qaeda "masterminds" who head one of the terror network's cells, officials said yesterday.