MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan – Pakistani security forces struck a militant training camp yesterday in a tribal region near the Afghan border, killing three dozen fighters, including a Chechen commander linked to Al Qaeda, an army official said.

One civilian and a soldier were also reported dead.

The raid came just days before a visit by President Bush to Pakistan during which the fight against Al Qaeda and the Taliban will be on the agenda.

The militants were attacked after conducting a raid inside Afghanistan and re-entering Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal region, where their camp was located.

Three helicopter gunships attacked their mountain hideout in the early morning near Saidgi, a village about nine miles west of Miran Shah, an army spokesman, Major General Shaukat Sultan said.

The assault killed about three dozen militants, said another army official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

The dead included the Chechen commander, identified only by his code name, Imam, the army official said. He died when a helicopter fired on his vehicle as he attempted to flee, he said.

“This Chechen commander Imam was behind most of the attacks against Pakistani security forces along the Pakistan-Afghan border,” the army official said. “He was an important man for Al Qaeda-linked militants, and he died with his three bodyguards.”

Another security official said one soldier was killed and about a dozen were injured. The official also spoke on condition of anonymity because he’s not authorized to speak to the press.

One of the helicopters hit a bus with gunfire during the raid, killing a female passenger, said the injured driver, Sabbir Khan.

Heavily armed militants later retaliated by taking eight paramilitary troops captive in the nearby town of Miran Shah, witnesses said. After capturing the troops, the militants announced over loudspeakers that all shops in the town should be closed, the owner of a shop selling cloth, Zarmat Khan, said.

Pakistan – a key American ally in the war against terror – has deployed thousands of troops to North Waziristan to carry out operations against hundreds of Arab, Afghan, and Central Asian militants, some allegedly linked with the Al Qaeda terror network.

Pakistan has denied in the past that arrests of militants are timed to coincide with events in America.

The militants’ mountaintop hideout was spotted about a week ago and put under surveillance, said an intelligence official on condition of anonymity because of the secretive nature of his job. He said Afghan and Uzbek militants and their local supporters were detected at the site.

More than two dozen militants were at the camp at the time of the attack, he said.

Last month, Pakistan protested to the American military in Afghanistan over firing that hit the same village, Saidgi, killing eight people.

Elsewhere in Pakistan, a pro-government politician was killed when gunmen opened fire on his car in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, officials said. The politician, Nasrullah Khan Kakar, headed the Pakistan Workers’ Party, a small group that supports President Musharraf.

Kakar was a strong opponent of militants who are blamed for attacks in the province in a campaign to secure more royalties for resources extracted from their areas.