ISLAMABAD, 18 January 2008 — Militants attacked a Pakistani Army base in the restive Afghan border region with rockets and small arms, while four villagers were killed yesterday when mortars slammed into their homes, officials said.

The violence followed the seizure by militants of a fort in the region that left scores dead and 15 missing.

The mortars slammed into several homes in the rugged region, killing at least four civilians, two of them women, and wounding 13 others, residents and an intelligence official said. He requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The intelligence official said it appeared the army fired the rounds, but a military spokesman denied it.

“We don’t care if Taleban and the security forces fight each other, but they should look out for the local population and avoid indiscriminate shelling which is hitting homes and killing innocent women and children,” said Noor Muhammad, a resident in Kotakai village.

In other violence in the border region, insurgents fired small arms and rockets at a military base in Ladha in South Waziristan late Wednesday, drawing retaliatory fire from troops, the military said in a statement. No casualties were reported in the clash.

Separately, at least three rockets landed near an air force base early yesterday in Kamra, a town about 50 kilometers northwest of Islamabad, the statement said. One hit a mess hall for junior officers located outside the base, the local police chief said. There were no injuries. Kamra is a Pakistan Air Force facility where jet fighters of different categories are upgraded or manufactured.

Seven members of the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary were killed in the surprise attack on Saroghai Fort late Tuesday, the military said.

Twenty more were listed as missing after the rebels breached the walls of the fort which dates back to the British colonial era, but five of them have since been located, the military said.

The military said yesterday the militants had withdrawn from the fort. It claimed the defenders killed 50 militants before being overwhelmed, but the rebels said only two of its fighters died.

Maulvi Muhammad Umer, a spokesman for the Taleban in the border area, warned the government would face more attacks across Pakistan if it did not release Taleban prisoners and stop military operations in the frontier region.

“Attacks will continue not only in the tribal areas, but we will target the government everywhere in the country,” he told The Associated Press by telephone.

The insurgents who seized the base were said to be followers of Baitullah Mehsud, a hard-liner who since December has been sole leader of an umbrella group of Taleban sympathizers and who is also thought to have links to Al-Qaeda.

Musharraf has blamed Mehsud and another pro-Taleban cleric, Mullah Fazlullah, for about 20 suicide attacks that killed 400 people over the last three months.

“The militants are now challenging the army openly. They have become very bold and are consolidating their positions,” Talat Masood, a retired general who is now a political analyst, said.

Musharraf first deployed the army in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal regions along the frontier in late 2001 to chase down Al-Qaeda militants fleeing the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Nearly 100,000 soldiers are now in the area, supported by heavy artillery and Cobra helicopter gunships.