Deaths in Pakistan village

At least 15 people have been killed in northwestern Pakistan in a raid involving helicopters used by international troops in Afghanistan, security officials said.

"Four gunship helicopters from across the border carried out the raid," a top security official told AFP news agency.

One witness, Habib Khan Wazir, said a helicopter landed outside a house in the village of Musa Nikow in South Waziristan before dawn on Wednesday.

He said the troops came out and fired on people outside and inside a house.

Pakistan's army said there had been an attack.

"We confirm an attack was carried out in a border village and we are gathering details," Major Murad Khan, a Pakistan army spokesman told AFP.

Mowaz Khan, a local official in the South Waziristan tribal district, claimed the helicopters dropped Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) soldiers in the border village of Jalal Khel and flew them back after the attack.

A spokesman for Isaf in Afghanistan said they were not aware of such an operation.

Bombing in Swat

Earlier on Tuesday, Pakistani military jets bombed an area in the nearby Swat valley killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens, a security official said.

The bombing came despite an offer of truce during the current Muslim fasting month of Ramadan announced by the government at the weekend.

A senior security official said fighter jets bombed Ghat Peochar area following intelligence that leaders of pro-Taliban cleric Mullah Fazlullah's group were hiding there.

"We are not sure if any leader was among 10 killed in the air  strike," the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told  AFP news agency.

Major General Athar Abbas, the military's chief spokesman, confirmed the bombing but said he did not have details of casualties.

Fazlullah's spokesman, Mulsim Khan, earlier on Tuesday claimed to  be holding two Chinese telecoms engineers and their entourage who  were kidnapped four days ago from neighbouring Dir district.

He claimed the latest air strike killed only civilians and that none of the group's fighters were hurt.

The engineers went missing along with their local driver and a security guard near the Afghan border where they had been checking an installation.

Fazlullah, who is also known as Mullah Radio for using illegal FM channels to propagate his ideas, has been leading a violent campaign to enforce Sharia (Islamic law) in the Swat valley since  2007.