PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP):

Pakistani troops killed 43 alleged militants in an operation in the Khyber tribal region while airstrikes left several more dead yesterday in the stronghold of the new Taliban chief elsewhere in the northwest, officials said.

Militants frequently attack trucks along the famed Khyber Pass, a main route for supplies destined for United States (US) troops in Afghanistan.

That's one reason Pakistan is under intense US pressure to crack down on insurgents along the Afghan border, especially the lawless tribal belt where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is suspected to be hiding. The US believes militants use Pakistan's tribal areas and other troubled parts of the northwest as safe havens from which to plan attacks on Western troops across the frontier.

Government offensive

The Taliban-affiliated group Lashkar-e-Islam has been a main target of the latest government offensive in Khyber, which authorities say has killed scores of alleged militants.

The paramilitary Frontier Corps announced the latest deaths in a written statement, adding an important headquarters of Lashkar-e-Islam was also destroyed.

The Khyber operation was launched about a week ago after a suicide bombing at a border checkpoint killed 19 police. The top government official in Khyber, Tariq Hayat, said it would continue until all the militants were flushed out of the region.

Elsewhere in the northwest yesterday, Pakistani fighter jets and helicopter gunships pounded militant hideouts in three villages of the Orakzai tribal region - the stronghold of new Pakistani Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud.

The death toll could not immediately be ascertained, but it could be 20 or more, said one of two intelligence officials who confirmed the attacks. The officials requested anonymity because they were not authorised to release the information to media.

Azmat Khan, a resident of one of the three villages, told The Associated Press by telephone he could confirm some people were killed in bombings, but he was not sure how many.

Off-limits

Khyber and Orakzai are remote regions largely off-limits to journalists, making it difficult to verify the information independently.

Also yesterday, lawyers said a Pakistani anti-terrorism court resumed pretrial proceedings against five suspects in last year's attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai that killed 166 people.

The hearings were held behind closed doors at a high-security prison in Rawalpindi and Pakistani authorities have released few details.

Government prosecutor Malik Rab Nawaz and a defence lawyer, Shahbaz Rajput, confirmed in phone interviews yesterday that the hearings resumed but said little else because the court ordered them to avoid discussing the case with the media.

Rajput said he has asked that the case be opened to the public.