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Pakistani soldiers killed at least 16 Al-Qaeda linked militants in fierce gunbattles in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan, officials said Saturday. *snip* The operation involving helicopter gunships and artillery has left more than 800 people dead, mostly militants, and also displaced 260,000, officials said.

A prominent member of al Qaeda was killed in fighting with U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, the group said in a statement posted on an Islamist website on Sunday. Abu Suleiman al-Otaibi, formerly one of the group's leaders in Iraq, was killed in a "fierce battle with the worshipers of the cross" in Paktia, it said without giving the date of the battle. Another al Qaeda member, identified as Abu Dejana al-Qahtani, also died in the fighting, it added. Afghan officials said they had no information on the report. But the government earlier said in a statement that "five opposition" fighters...

A leading al Qaeda member in Afghanistan, Abu Laith al-Libi, has been killed, a Web site often used by the group and other Islamists said on Thursday. A banner on the Ekhlaas.org site said Libi had fallen as a martyr, without giving further details. It was not immediately clear if Libi's death was linked to a suspected U.S. missile strike that killed up to 13 foreign militants in Pakistan's North Waziristan region this week. The attack had targeted second or third tier al Qaeda leaders, according to residents in the tribal area. Tribesmen in the area had said a deputy...

KABUL, Afghanistan - Al-Qaida has ferried about half a dozen Arab agents into Afghanistan in the past three weeks, two of whom detonated themselves in suicide bombings in the south targeting a packed mosque and a convoy of U.S. troops, Afghanistan's defense minister said Friday. Rahim Wardak told The Associated Press he received intelligence that Osama bin Laden's terror group is regrouping and intends to bring Iraq-style bloodshed to Afghanistan. He also warned that the country could be in for several months of intense violence ahead of key legislative elections. "We have gotten reports here and there that they have...

ISLAMABAD: Mir Jan proudly displays what he describes as his badges of honour: two deep scars -- one acquired fighting the erstwhile Soviet Union with US assistance; the other, ironically, sustained fighting his former ally in the US-led war in Afghanistan. The 43-year-old bearded and turbaned Jan is a Taliban fighter, who is based in the Kuchlak refugee camp in Pakistan, not far from the Afghan border town of Spin Boldak. In recent weeks, he has once again started taking part in skirmishes in Afghanistan. "I am proud to be a part of the jehad which defeated Roosis [Russians] and...

US troops kill al-Qaeda fighters The battle is the most serious since the Operation Anaconda American-led forces in Afghanistan say they have killed several al-Qaeda members and detained many more in the most serious battle for over a month. Major Bryan Hilferty said the fighting started when a joint patrol of Afghan soldiers and US special forces came under fire on Saturday. A series of violent incidents have raised security fears this week "We received ineffective enemy fire and we returned fire from both ground and air and killed several terrorists," he said. There had been no casualties among the...