Pakistani aircraft bombed a village bazaar near the Afghan border on Tuesday, killing more than 50 suspected militants and civilians and wounding scores of others during the most deadly fighting since Pakistan threw its support behind the US-led war on terror six years ago.

Four days of clashes with Islamic militants in North Waziristan have claimed about 250 lives and are likely to harden domestic opposition to President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s alliance with Washington.

Residents said Epi village was rocked by a dozen explosions on Tuesday afternoon that destroyed homes and shops. Abdul Sattar, a grocery shop owner, said he had counted more than 60 dead and more than 150 wounded. He said many of the victims were mutilated.

“Some did not have heads, hands or legs. Some people were searching for their children and women,”

Sattar said over the telephone from Epi. The bazaar had been crowded with people from surrounding villages buying food to break their daylong Ramadan fast, he said.

Army spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad told Geo television that military aircraft targeted militant hideouts struck “one or two places” near the town of Mir Ali - Epi lies about four kilometers away.

He said the air strikes might have killed some civilians who were living in the areas where militant hideouts were targeted, but he had no exact numbers.