Violence in Pakistan's tribal belt kills 16

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, Jan 7 (Reuters) - Sixteen people, including eight paramilitary soldiers, were killed in Pakistan on Saturday in separate incidents in its restive tribal belt on the Afghan border, officials and witnesses said.

Eight troops of the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary were killed in an exchange of fire with militants in the early hours of Saturday, officials said.

The clash took place in Mir Ali, about 24 km (15 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town in the North Waziristan tribal area, they said.

In another incident, eight people, including a women, were killed and nine wounded in a helicopter gunship attack on a house of a militant in Dandi Sadhgy, 8 km (5 miles) north of Miranshah.

"The house belonged to Maulana Noor Mohammad," said one witness, referring to a religious scholar who supported Afghanistan's former Taliban rulers.

All those killed in the attack were members of Mohammad's family but it was not known if the scholar was among them, he said.

Military spokesmen wre not immediately available for comment.

Waziristan is part of Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal belt that stretches through rugged mountains and deserts along the border with Afghanistan.

Many al Qaeda members fled to the region from Afghanistan after U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001, and were given shelter by militant sympathisers from conservative Pashtun tribes that inhabit both sides of the border.

Pakistan's government has had about 70,000 troops in the region for the past two years after vowing to clear the region of foreign militants and suppress their Pakistani accomplices.

Hundreds of people -- both militants and government troops -- have been killed.