ISLAMABAD, 22 November 2007 — Pakistani troops wiped out a mountaintop militant base in a troubled northwestern valley, killing at least 40 followers of a rebel pro-Taleban cleric, the military said yesterday.

The insurgents were killed on Tuesday in the Swat Valley, a tourist spot which has been partly occupied by militants, top army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said.

Residents said four civilians also died in clashes in Swat. The army says around 190 people have been killed during more than a week of heavy fighting in the region, which borders Pakistan’s troubled tribal belt.

Arshad said soldiers had cleared a “hub of resistance” from a hilltop in the valley’s Shangla district, where the militants have dug in against security forces.

“The operation is continuing today in several parts of Swat,” Arshad told AFP.

Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf, who cited growing militancy as one of the key reasons for declaring emergency rule on Nov. 3, has ordered the military to flush militants out of the area.

Militants fired around 20 rockets at a security forces camp in the town of Kabal after which soldiers fired back, but there were no reports of casualties on either side, an army statement said. Separately a crudely-made bomb exploded near a police station but caused no casualties or damage, it said.

Residents in Kabal said that intense gunfire continued through Tuesday night and that gunship helicopters also pounded suspected militant hide-outs early yesterday.

The military had asked local people to vacate the area on Monday to avoid civilian casualties.

But residents said four civilians were killed and two others were injured when a mortar shell fell on a house. It was not clear whether it was fired by militants or troops, they said.

Unrest erupted in Swat in July when hard-line cleric Maulana Fazlullah’s forces occupied several villages and called for the imposition of Shariah law.

Fazlullah is nicknamed “Mullah Radio” because he runs a pirate FM radio station that calls for a holy war on government forces.

Meanwhile officials said that the situation was calm in a Pakistani tribal town bordering Afghanistan where bloody sectarian clashes have claimed at least 112 lives.

Tribal leaders launched efforts on Tuesday to keep the peace in Parachinar, the town at the center of the violence.