18 die in clash near Afghan-Pakistani border

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistani forces repelled a mass assault on their outpost near the Afghan border yesterday in a battle that left 18 dead and shook claims by Pakistan's army to have regained control of a critical region.

A separate clash in the nearby Swat Valley piled pressure on a disputed peace deal there, while a Taliban commander suspected in attacks on trucks carrying supplies to NATO and U.S. troops in Afghanistan surrendered to authorities, officials said.

Under the peace deal, the government agreed to impose Islamic law in Swat and nearby areas to halt two years of bloody fighting. The controversial pact has been likened by the United States to surrender. It heralded a militant push into a neighboring district within 60 miles of Islamabad.

In an interview with CNN, due to air today, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the militants' expanding reach in the northwest of Pakistan posed an "existential threat to the democratic government in Pakistan."

Gates said the United States was willing to provide all the training and equipment Pakistan's military needed to help combat the growing threat.

"There has been reluctance on their part up to now. They don't like the idea of a significant American military footprint inside Pakistan. I understand that . . . but we are willing to do pretty much whatever we can to help the Pakistanis in this situation," he said in the interview.

The United States has bankrolled Pakistan's government and army with billions of dollars since Pakistan abandoned its support of the former hard-line Taliban regime in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. While Pakistan has launched numerous military operations along the frontier since then, security has only deteriorated.

Pakistani generals claimed earlier this year to have dismantled Taliban mini-states in the northwestern tribal regions of Mohmand and Bajur, from where insurgents were attacking U.S. troops on the other side.

Yet militants still control much of the frontier region, which U.S. officials view as the likely hiding place of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, and have made alarming advances toward several major cities.

According to the army, about 100 insurgents took part in yesterday's attack on the Spinal Tangi security post in Mohmand.

"Sixteen militants were killed in retaliatory fire. Two security forces personnel embraced shahadat," or martyrdom, a military statement said.

Syed Ahmad Jan, a senior administrator for Mohmand, said three other troops were wounded.

Few reporters work in the remote border zone because of poor security, making it hard to verify the army's account. A Taliban spokesman in the region could not be reached for comment.

Pakistani counterinsurgency efforts are currently focused on Buner, a hilly farming district near the Indus River that was infiltrated last month by hundreds of Taliban militants.