KEY POINTS:
ISLAMABAD - Pakistani forces stormed a mosque compound on Tuesday, killing about 50 militants, as they fought their way through an Islamic school where they believed a rebel cleric was hiding with women and children hostages.
Militants mounted a last stand in the basements of the madrasa, and military spokesman Major-General Waheed Arshad said cleric Abdul Rashid Ghazi had barricaded himself in.
Eight soldiers were killed and 29 wounded, Arshad said.
Fifty militants were captured or surrendered.
The assault to end a week-long standoff at Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, was still in progress 10 hours after it began.
"There is intense engagement ... Militants are taking positions in almost every room, they're fighting from room to room, they have positions in the basement, on the stairs," said the military spokesman.
He said there were more than 70 rooms and the basements in the sprawling mosque-school complex, and the militants were armed with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.
With more than two-thirds of the mosque-school complex secured, some 30 children and 24 women had managed to get out. It was unclear how many more women and children remained in the complex, but earlier officials had said hundreds could be inside.
Six of the children said they had been kept in the basement of the mosque but fled when their guards disappeared after commandos overran it, Arshad said.
By early afternoon, loud blasts still rocked the heart of Islamabad and militants had resumed firing from the mosque's minarets, Arshad said.
Commandos backed by paramilitary troops first seized the mosque then swept resistance from the rooftop of the madrasa and worked their way down through the building.
Explosions and sustained gunfire had erupted before dawn, immediately after talks to end a week-long standoff broke down.
There were fears the militants might resort to using suicide bombs. Officials said on Monday militants had distributed vests packed with explosives.
Heavy loss of life among women and children could have serious repercussions for President Pervez Musharraf, who had been under pressure to confront the militants for some time.
The Lal Masjid has been a centre of militancy for years, known for its support for Afghanistan's Taleban and opposition to Musharraf's backing for the United States.
Thick smoke shrouded the compound that had been surrounded by troops since clashes with armed students broke out on July 3.
Beyond the razor wire barriers several hundred metres away, about a dozen anxious parents and relatives waited, most too upset to speak, but some voicing anger with the government.
Lali Gul, a father from the northwestern town of Charsadda, said he last spoke to his 16-year-old son Abdullah on Friday.
"He said they were willing to come out but feared Rangers would fire on them," Gul said, referring to paramilitary forces.
Before the assault began, at least 21 people were killed in the week-long standoff that followed months of mounting tension between the mosque's hardline clerics and the government.
About 1,200 students left the mosque early on in the siege.
The government has been demanding radical cleric Ghazi and his scores of hardcore fighters, who authorities say include wanted militants, surrender unconditionally.
Ghazi refused, saying he would prefer martyrdom. He said he and the followers of his Taleban-style movement hoped their deaths would spark an Islamic revolution.
The action against the mosque has raised fears of a militant backlash. A wanted Pakistani militant vowed revenge on Monday if the mosque were assaulted.
- REUTERS
