Pat Dollard | Young Americans

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) - A police raid in Pakistan’s northwest Saturday triggered a shootout that killed two officers and three militants and led the insurgents to use women and children as human shields, officials said.

It was the latest clash between pro-Taliban militants and security forces in areas near the Afghan border. The six-hour gunbattle occurred in Mardan town, about 30 miles northeast of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, when officers surrounded a house and asked the occupants to surrender, said Abdul Qayyum, a local police official.

Qayyum would not say what prompted the raid, but said the militants were using assault rifles and that the way they resisted showed they were well trained. He also said the militants briefly used some women and children as human shields. One officer was wounded.

About 380 people, mostly militants, died across Pakistan in January, according to figures provided by the government and military. The fighting has not been limited to the Afghan border regions. In recent months, major urban centers such as the port city of Karachi have also been affected.

In 2005, police arrested al-Qaida’s No. 3 leader Abu Farraj al-Libbi after a shootout in Mardan. Al-Libbi, who allegedly orchestrated two assassination attempts against Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, was later handed over to U.S. authorities.

The latest fighting came just days after a U.S. missile strike killed Abu Laith al-Libi, a top al-Qaida commander in the lawless border regions. U.S. commanders in Afghanistan say the areas are being increasingly used as a safe haven by Taliban and al-Qaida guerrillas fighting the NATO-led international coalition there.

Pakistan has yet to confirm the death of al-Libi, reported Thursday on Islamic extremist Web sites and confirmed by an American official who said the veteran al-Qaida leader was hit by a missile from a U.S. Predator drone in a village in North Waziristan late Monday.

Militants unleashed a deadly response Friday. A suicide bomber rammed his explosives-laden car into a military checkpoint about two miles from the missile attack site, killing five soldiers and wounding five others.

The U.S. military identified al-Libi as the likely mastermind of a suicide bombing that hit its main Afghanistan base during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney last year.

Meanwhile, a court near the capital, Islamabad, allowed police to continue questioning for 10 more days a teenager who allegedly confessed to a role in the Dec. 27 assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Police claim that Aitezaz Shah, who was arrested last month, was a backup in case the main designated assassin failed. They have said Shah was ordered to kill Bhutto by Baitullah Mehsud, a prominent militant leader.