Attacks on Pakistani forces spark fears of backlash over crackdown on al-Qaida

A BOMBING and a series of rocket attacks on Pakistani forces have raised fears that their bloody offensive against al-Qaida militants could be provoking a broad backlash.

Pakistani forces, however, reported no fighting with al-Qaida militants yesterday in South Waziristan, where thousands of troops have been battling hundreds of militants and their tribal supporters.

A roadside bomb exploded late on Tuesday in northwestern Pakistan as an army vehicle passed as part of the military's sweep against suspected terrorists holed up in the rugged tribal regions along the Afghan border, police said.

Three rockets also slammed into Peshawar late on Tuesday, wounding two people, a police official said. Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, said police.

The bombing and rocket attacks illustrate the dangerous line President General Pervez Musharraf is walking as he seeks to appease Washington without disrupting Pakistan's delicate balance of Islamic and secular concerns.

The week-long military operation, near the town of Wana, is the largest since Gen Musharraf threw his support behind the US-led war on terror in late 2001 a move that disenchanted many in this Islamic country of 150 million people.

Hundreds of militants, suspected of protecting a "high-value" terrorist suspect, possibly al-Qaida No 2 Ayman al-Zawahri, have fiercely fought thousands of Pakistani forces using artillery and helicopter gunships.