Fighting broke out at Azam Warsak village in South Waziristan district after Uzbek rebels and some local supporters opened fire on a Pakistani pro-government tribal chief in the main bazaar, a security official said.

The chieftain, Malik Saadullah, is the head of a so-called peace committee responsible for maintaining a truce between security forces and Taleban-supporting militants.

Two of Saadullah’s men and an Afghan shopkeeper were killed, the official told AFP on condition of anonymity. Shortly afterwards there was another gunfight in which 12 militants were killed, again mostly Uzbeks, he said.

‘The militants were angered because Saadullah’s men had fired at their friends on Monday night,’ the official said.

Pakistan signed a peace deal with tribal elders and militants in South Waziristan after military operations against Taleban and Al Qaeda members who fled the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.

Many of those who hid in the region were foreigners, including Uzbeks. Other foreigners settled in the area in the 1980s and 1990s after the ‘jihad’ against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

Officials and rights groups say the conservative tribal areas have become increasingly ‘Talebanised’ and that there are rising tensions between tribesmen who support the government and the militants.

The region is also awash in weapons and crackles with tribal feuds.