Truce takes hold in Pak al-Qaeda offensive

Firing halted early Monday after intense exchanges overnight between troops and an estimated 500 tribesmen and militants, now believed to be mostly radical Uzbek or Chechen fugitives who fought alongside al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and fled into Pakistan after the US-led offensive in late 2001.

"Firing has stopped and a truce will be observed for the whole day," the chief administrator of South Waziristan tribal district in Pakistan's northwest frontier, Rehmatullah Wazir, told AFP.

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The delegation of some 20 tribal elders flew white flags from their cars as they travelled into the besieged villages of Kalusha and Shin Warsak, near the district capital Wana, where a siege since Thursday has left at least four people dead and an unknown number of people injured.

They are trying to persuade the local Yargulkhel clan, a fierce Pashtun sub-tribe which has been sheltering and fighting alongside the militants, to hand them over along with 12 soldiers and two officials taken hostage.

Some of the militants appeared to have attempted an escape Sunday night before the ceasefire, chief regional security commander, Brigadier Mehmood Shah, said.

"There was intense firing from both sides overnight, there was heavy resistance from the militants," Shah told AFP.

"It looks like they were trying to escape from the area and that was the reason there was intense firing, we even used artillery at night."

The elders called for the ceasefire on Sunday during a "jirga" or traditional assembly by some 1,000 elders in Wana, a dusty market town some 20km from the Afghan border.

"They were to go early morning to negotiate with the people inside and when they went in, the security forces were going to hold their fire," military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told AFP.