MIRANSHAH, 11 June 2006 — Pakistani security forces backed by helicopter gunships destroyed a militant training facility near the Afghan border in a predawn raid yesterday, killing 15 to 20 suspected militants, officials said.

The attack was launched in Drub Lokai, a town in the North Waziristan tribal region where foreign militants and their local supporters are believed to be hiding, said Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan, the army spokesman.

He said the operation was “successful” and that foreigners were among the 15 to 20 militants slain.

“We believe we killed 15 to 20 miscreants,” he said.

Sultan gave no further details about the identity or nationality or the suspects and only said the dead “miscreants” had been using the compound to train rebels for attacks against their forces.

The militants, who had been responsible for numerous attacks on security forces convoys, were believed to be foreigners and their Pakistani allies, he said. The military uses the term miscreants to describe remnants of Taleban, Al-Qaeda and their local supporters.

However, a security official in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, said three Uzbeks and some Afghans were killed in the raid and that their bodies had been taken to a hospital.

Private Geo TV, citing a security official, also said Uzbeks, Tajiks and Chechens were believed to be among the dead.

The official said the suspects were hiding in the compound when the helicopter gunships launched the strike.

“It was a swift operation. Now ground forces are doing their job,” he said.

The official said a cache of weapons and explosives was also destroyed in the strike on the hideout, which had served as a base for the militants.

Foreign Al-Qaeda supporters, including many from Central Asia, are known to be taking refuge in the area.

Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, has deployed about 80,000 troops in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan to flush out foreign militants and their local supporters. Although scores of militants have been killed during extensive army operations in North and South Waziristan after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, authorities say an unspecified number of suspects are still hiding there.

Foreign fighters arrived in the area in the 1980s, with the encouragement of Pakistan, the United States and some Gulf nations to help Afghan fighters fight Soviet forces in Afghanistan.

Militants based in Pakistan’s border region also launch attacks into Afghanistan, where foreign and government forces are facing the worst violence since the Taleban were ousted for refusing to hand over Osama Bin Laden. Afghanistan has repeatedly called on Pakistan to do more to stop the insurgents. Pakistan says Afghanistan should boost security along its side of the border.