Taliban, Foes Clash In Pakistan

By REHMAT MEHSUD and MATTHEW ROSENBERG

Taliban fighters attacked rival militants backed by the government in Pakistan's tribal areas, sparking clashes that intelligence officials and tribal elders said left dozens dead.

There were few details of Wednesday's fighting, on the edge of the isolated South Waziristan tribal area, a key Taliban and al Qaeda stronghold.

Two intelligence officials in the area said it began when the region's dominant Taliban faction -- whose leader, Baitullah Mehsud, was believed to have been killed last week in a U.S. missile strike -- attacked a tribal faction backed by the government. The two sides battled in and around the village of Sura Ghar with assault weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, the officials said. One official said Pakistani forces tried to help the government-backed militants repel the Taliban, but gave no details.

One intelligence official put the death toll near or above 70 while the other put it at less than 30, all of them fighters. Both acknowledged that authorities didn't yet have a clear reading of the situation. The fighting raged for five hours, an intelligence official told the Associated Press.

The leader of the government-backed faction, Turkistan Bitani, said 90 fighters were killed and more than 40 houses destroyed after Mehsud loyalists attacked his men, the AP reported.

The fighting came as the Pakistan Taliban try to stem infighting among their ranks following Mr. Mehsud's apparent death. He was instrumental in uniting a number of competing militant groups in 2007 to form the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, an offshoot of the Afghan Taliban. Government officials and tribal elders in South Waziristan said members of Mr. Mehsud's faction may have attacked their government-backed rivals in an effort to keep the group united.

U.S. and Pakistani officials say they are almost certain that Mr. Mehsud was killed a week ago by a missile fired from a U.S. pilotless drone. The Taliban have denied he is dead.