Unidentified attackers killed eight pro-government tribesmen, stoking fears of violent clashes in Pakistan's volatile northwest, officials said Monday, according to AP. The victims were allies of Maulvi Nazir, who led local Wazir tribesmen in a government-backed campaign last year to push al-Qaida-linked foreign militants out of the South Waziristan tribal region. The fighting in March and April left scores dead. Pakistan's army said that the eight died when militants fired rocket in attacks Sunday night on offices established by Nazir's supporters after the foreign militants, mostly Uzbeks, were banished from the surrounding Wana Valley after last year's fighting. Local intelligence officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to journalists, said three tribesmen died in Wana, and a second strike in nearby Shakai killed five tribesmen and wounded six, reported AP. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attacks, but Nazir's spokesman quickly ordered people from the rival Mehsud tribe _ suspected of harboring the Uzbek militants and allied to local Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud _ to leave the area by 8 a.m. on Tuesday. «If they pay no heed to our warning and remain in our area they (the Mehsuds) would be responsible for any harm caused,» spokesman Lal Wazir told reporters in Wana.
