Rebel cleric among 60 dead at Pakistan mosque

Pakistani forces killed a rebel Islamist leader and more than 50 militants yesterday after 15 hours of fighting in an Islamabad mosque compound to end a week-long siege.

Militants mounted a last stand in the basement of a religious school where cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi was killed, the Interior Ministry said. There was no immediate word on the fate of women and children he was said to have been using as human shields.

"Ghazi was surrounded by the militants who did not let him surrender and he was killed in the crossfire," Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema said.

Mr Cheema said some surviving militants fought on after Ghazi was killed at the climax of the siege of the Lal Masjid, the Red Mosque, in the heart of the Pakistani capital.

Shortly after night fell the gunfire died down, but Ghazi's residence had still to be swept of possible resistance.

"The operation is in its last stages. There are one or two areas to be cleared," military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said.

"When the operation is finished we'll start picking up bodies," he said, adding that the latest assessment was that "more than 50" militants had been slain.

At least eight soldiers were killed and 29 wounded during the storming of the compound.

Close to 50 men had surrendered, but it was unclear if they were all militants.

President Pervez Musharraf ordered troops to lay siege to the mosque on July 3, after a gunfight erupted during clashes with armed students, following months of tension between the authorities and Lal Masjid radicals.

The Taliban-style movement had agitated to impose strict Islamic law in Islamabad, and had launched a vigilante anti-vice campaign. Government patience appeared to run out after they briefly abducted Chinese women, accusing them of prostitution.

Before the final assault began, at least 21 people had been killed in the week-long standoff.

Codenamed Operation Silence, the assault began at 4 a.m. (2300 GMT Monday) with a barrage of explosions and sustained gunfire immediately after last gasp negotiations broke down.

The operation took so long because there were more than 70 rooms in the sprawling mosque-school complex, and the militants were armed with machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades.

"Militants are taking positions in almost every room, they're fighting from room to room, they have positions in the basement, on the stairs," Mr Arshad said during the fighting.