The Pakistan military says its troops have killed 40 tribal fighters in the country's border region with Afghanistan.

Artillery and helicopters attacked positions in tribal regions near the Afghan border and 30 fighters were arrested, the military said in a statement on Thursday.

Eight soldiers were killed and 32 wounded, it said.

The fighting took place in the strongholds of commander Baitullah Mehsud, who the United States has claimed was behind the assassination of Benazir Bhutto, the Pakistani opposition leader, in Rawalpindi on December 27.

Mehsud has been blamed for a string of suicide attacks that intensified after commandos stormed the Red Mosque complex in Islamabad last July.

Security situation

Last week, his men attacked and captured another fort in Waziristan.

As fighting intensified this week, a US military commander

Admiral William Fallon, the head of the US military's Central Command, visited Pakistan for talks on the situation with its army chief, general Ashfaq Kayani.

Fallon told reporters in Florida last week that Pakistan was increasingly willing to fight Muslim fighters and accept US support.

He said he believed Pakistani leaders wanted a "more robust" effort by US forces to train and advise their troops in counter-“insurgency” operations.

The United States has already announced plans to step up training of Pakistan's Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force recruited from tribal lands.

PHOTO CAPTION

Pakistani army troops keep position on an armored vehicle, as they patrol in the town of Pakistan's Swat Valley along Afghan border, Tuesday, Jan. 22, 2008.

Al-Jazeera