Six dead as Pakistani forces destroy militant house

Pakistani forces blew up the house of a leading Islamic militant early Monday, killing six people, as troops extended an anti-insurgent offensive in the Khyber tribal district.

The deaths came a day after the government said the three-day-old operation had saved the northwestern city of Peshawar from rebel advances and protected the main supply route for international forces in Afghanistan.

The offensive is the first by the new government since it launched controversial peace talks with militants along the border in March, a subject expected to be taken up by a top US diplomat visiting Islamabad on Monday.

An AFP photographer saw six coffins lined up outside the rubble of the house of Haji Namdar, the chief of a hardline organisation campaigning for Taliban-style Islamic law in troubled Khyber.

Namdar said the explosion appeared to be a missile strike and said he suspected the involvement of NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan, but did not provide any evidence to back the claim.