TWO PRO-TALIBAN CLERICS KILLED IN PAKISTAN SHOOTOUT.

Two pro-Taliban clerics were killed in a shootout between security forces and militants in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, a day after around 40 people were killed in a suicide attack in a mosque, the military said."The terrorists ambushed the convoy at 5:10 a.m. (2310 GMT)," a military spokesman said. "Amir Izzat Khan and Mohammad Alam were killed and one of our non-commissioned officers embraced shahadat (martyrdom)," he said, referring to the clerics. Five soldiers were wounded, he added. The clash took place near the town of Mardan on the main road leading to Swat valley, where security forces launched a major operation last month to flush out militants. Khan and Alam were close aides to Sufi Mohammad, a cleric who struck a peace deal with authorities in February to end violence in Swat. The pact collapsed after militants refused to lay down arms and began expanding their influence in nearby districts. The military says more than 1,200 militants and 90 soldiers have been killed since the army swung into action, while the militants have carried out nine bomb attacks in several cities and town in recent weeks. At least 40 people were killed and dozens were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself during Friday prayers in a mosque in Upper Dir district, near Swat. On Thursday, militants shot dead five policemen and a soldier after first targeting a convoy with a roadside bomb in Mardan just hours after U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, visited the town to see camps set up for some of the 2.5 million people who fled the conflict zone. The United States and Pakistan's other western allies, worried over risks of nuclear-armed Pakistan's sliding into chaos after Taliban's creeping advances, have welcomed the Swat offensive.