Wana (Pakistan), March 21 (Reuters): At least 50 people were killed, including some children, in fighting between al Qaida-linked militants and Pakistani tribesmen near the Afghan border today, taking the death toll in three days of fighting to about 100.

The fighting follows a break-down in relations between the al Qaida-linked militants and the tribesmen who previously sheltered them. The government has been urging the ethnic Pashtun tribesmen to bring the foreigners under control. Tribesmen in the South Waziristan region also called for holy war against the foreign militants, most of whom are Uzbeks.

“Thirty-five foreign militants and 15 tribesmen were killed in today’s fighting,” said a security official who declined to be identified. Nearly 50 people, including 35 foreign militants, were killed in fighting on Monday and yesterday, government and security officials said.

Hundreds of foreign militants, including Uzbeks, Chechens and Arabs, fled to the semi-autonomous tribal lands on the Pakistani side of the border after US-led forces defeated the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. Most ethnic Pashtun tribesmen, who inhabit both sides of the Pakistani-Afghan border, gave the militants refuge.