Pakistani authorities are questioning a U.S. citizen arrested Monday in
the country's violence-plagued tribal area along the Afghan border.
The
man was detained at a police checkpoint while trying to enter the
Mohmand area of North Waziristan, carrying an American passport and a
laptop computer. The young man says he is a college student from the
U.S. state of Florida hoping to visit a friend in the region.
Foreigners are required to get special permission from Pakistan's government to enter the tribal area.
A U.S. Embassy spokesman said he had no information about the arrest.
Elsewhere
in Pakistan's northwest, security officials said that government troops
have killed more than 40 militants in the latest fighting in the tribal
area.
They say about 25 militants were killed in the Swat Valley
Monday, along with two military personnel. More than a dozen militants
were killed in the Bajaur region.
The Pakistani military has
been carrying out an offensive against Taliban and al-Qaida militants
in the country's tribal regions. The military says it has killed at
least one thousand militants in Bajaur since August.
The U.N.
refugee agency Tuesday said some 190,000 people have been displaced
from the Bajaur region since the fighting began in August. It says
that figure includes nearly 170,000 Pakistanis now living in the
country's North West Frontier Province, plus 20,000 Pakistanis and
Afghans who have fled to Kunar province in eastern Afghanistan.
The
Pakistani government is under pressure from neighboring Afghanistan and
the United States to take on Taliban and al-Qaida militants along the
Afghan border.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.
