ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Ten Pakistani soldiers were killed yesterday in a gun battle with suspected members of al-Qaida, marking the deadliest encounter yet in the hunt for terrorists on this side of the Afghan border.
Pakistani officials said they had killed two suspected terrorists and captured at least one, whom they described as being from Chechnya.
Details were unclear, but local officials said the Pakistani soldiers had been surprised by the attack, which they said had followed a drawn-out negotiation with local tribesmen to turn over the suspected terrorists.
The officials said al-Qaida suspects fired shoulder-fired rockets and grenades at the Pakistani troops. The bulk of the suspected al-Qaida force escaped, the officials said. "We are desperately searching for them," said Brig. Javed Cheema of Pakistan's interior ministry.
Pakistani officials said no Americans took part in the battle yesterday. But a Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Pakistani forces were acting on a tip provided by Americans, who had intercepted communications that led to the area. A team of U.S. forces was less than a mile away when the battle broke out.
The battle marked the first time Pakistani soldiers have died in combat since the government sent troops to the border area last year to apprehend al-Qaida and Taliban fighters fleeing Afghanistan. Pakistani officials said some of their troops had also been wounded.
The raid took place in the village of Azam Warsak, about seven miles from the Afghan border. Azam Warsak is in South Waziristan, one of the tribal areas that span the Afghan-Pakistani border. U.S. and Pakistani forces have been scouring the region for months, after reports that hundreds of al-Qaida and Taliban fighters had taken refuge there in the wake of the rout of the Taliban late last year.
Dozens of suspected al-Qaida and Taliban fighters have been picked up in the area in recent weeks. Last week, Sen. Bob Graham, the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, said that Osama bin Laden was "probably" in hiding somewhere in Pakistan's tribal areas.
It was not immediately clear how al-Qaida suspects were able to inflict such heavy losses on the Pakistani forces.
A Pakistani intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said officials were looking into the possibility that tribal leaders had tipped off al-Qaida suspects, enabling them to inflict the heavy losses.