Al-Qaeda and Pakistan...

A report from The Australian on the fighting in northern tribal areas of Pakistan..

AL-QA'IDA's involvement in the huge surge of fighting in Pakistan's Islamic fundamentalist heartland was revealed last night as reports indicated that more than 50,000 people had been forced to flee their homes after being caught in crossfire.

Islamabad's top military spokesman, Waheed Arshad, said in the past few days of fighting, more than 50 "foreign militants" had been killed -- code for al-Qa'ida terrorists based in an area where Osama bin Laden is believed to be dug in.

According to Major General Arshad, the "foreign militants" killed have been from among the Uzbeks, Arabs, Tajiks and Afghans who form the backbone of the force surrounding bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, in the region of North and South Waziristan.

Fighting has been intense as militants attack the 100,000 Pakistani soldiers deployed in the area. At least 250 people have been killed in the past week. The army says 47 Pakistani troops have died since Sunday.

Military analysts believe the offensive is directly linked to a video statement issued by bin Laden last month calling for full-scale war against President Pervez Musharraf to avenge the storming in July of the radical Red Mosque in the Pakistani capital.

The militants claim to have 20,000 suicide bombers poised to strike at targets as the fighting escalates.

The brutality of the fighting has stunned military analysts, with reports that Pakistani soldiers captured by the militants are being tortured before being killed, their bodies being returned after their throats have been slit and their arms and legs chopped off.

Grave fears are held for more than 250 Pakistani soldiers being held by the militants, among them senior officers, including a colonel. All attempts to rescue them have failed.

The militants have started murdering them at the rate of three a day.