Yuldash was previously mentioned as one of two "high-value targets" cornered when the military began the sweep on 16 March.Maj-Gen Sultan said the operation had been successful since the military had killed 60 suspected militants and captured 163 more (AP). The soldiers and officials were taken hostage during Pakistan's largest sweep yet through the western tribal areas, where some groups are suspected to have been sheltering al-Qaida forces.Late on Saturday, the army's spokesman, Major-General Shaukat Sultan, saidintelligence and eyewitness accounts, indicated that Tahir Yuldash, an alleged terrorist and leader of an Uzbek terror group allied with al-Qaida, had been badly wounded. In the meantime, military operations and dialogue [through the tribal leaders] will continue," he said.About 10,000 Mahsud tribesmen met yesterday near the town of Wana to help authorities track down militants who attacked an army convoy last week. Another soldier escaped before he could be released, he added. Tribal leaders negotiated the release.Troops began withdrawing from some parts of Pakistan's semi-autonomous tribal areas yesterday after a successful operation, Brigadier Shah said. But up to 600 suspected militants are still thought to be hiding along the border with Afghanistan. He said the army would continue to use a combination of military operations and talks with tribal leaders to rid the region of suspected al-Qa'ida forces and their allies."The army will stay in South Waziristan until the foreigners are flushed out of the area and tribesmen harbouring them are captured.

Pakistani troops started to withdraw from parts of western Pakistan yesterday after militants released captured soldiers and politicians, and tribal leaders negotiated the handing over of foreign militants. Eleven soldiers were released yesterday morning and two local officials were expected to be released later in the day or early today, said Brigadier Mahmood Shah, the regional security chief. According to experts, between 1,200 and 1,500 former British soldiers and police officers, including former SAS, Marines, paratroopers and RUC officers, are working in Iraq. Some privately estimate that the total number of foreigners working for private security companies now exceeds the 8,700 British troops there.Apart from the major US and British companies, dozens of small firms have set up shop in Iraq. It employs about 120 staff to protect about 150 British officials and contractors.. That figure is set to increase sharply in July when sovereignty is handed over to an Iraqi administration.The largest contract is with Control Risks, which has earned £23.5m. The Independent on Sunday has learnt that the Foreign Office and Department for International Development have spent nearly £25m on hiring private bodyguards, armed escorts and security advisers to protect their civil servants.

When a US helicopter crashed near Fallujah last year, an American security firm took control of the area and began rescue operations.Details of the number of companies here - there may be as many as 400 - are further complicated by the number of security firms that are subcontracted by larger companies on a daily or weekly basis. Larger companies such as Control Risks complain that many are unregistered and uninsured.Much of the money being earned by British companies is coming from the British taxpayer. Former British and American special forces members speak of their concern that smaller firms are hiring personnel with little experience with firearms and have no interest in setting out the circumstances in which their employees may use their weapons.The presence of thousands of armed Westerners and others, including Gurkhas and Fijians, says much about America's fear of military casualties Security firms are escorting convoys. Armed men from an American company are guarding US troops at night inside the former presidential palace where Paul Bremer, the American proconsul, has his headquarters. The SAS is said to be suffering an unprecedented loss of personnel as its highly trained soldiers are lured by lucrative private security work.With business of around £1bn, British companies are estimated to have the biggest share of private security contracts in Iraq. Whom did he blame? "I blame the situation," he answered with a sigh.Surveying the wrecked Ford in which a man had been killed planning the destruction of many others, he sighed and said: "Life here is as worthless as a cigarette.". So many British security firms are cashing in on the violence in Iraq that armed private security men now outnumber most of the national army contingents in the country.

"But this looks like revenge for its own sake."Against that, Ariel Sharon has been advised that Hamas's ability to strike against Israelis has indeed been severely hampered by the relentless policy of targeted assassinations. Although there are signs that here in Nablus Hamas's bomb-making capacity may be increasing, elsewhere on the West Bank, according to Shin Bet, the security service, its ability to carry out attacks on its own is waning.According to Professor Gerald Steinberg of Bar Ilan university, the long term effect of the assassination may be to reduce the hold on the population by a less unified Hamas ahead of a pullout from Gaza. But Ayub Shahim, a former quarryman in his 50s whose bulldozer had been badly damaged by the blast, said he used to work at the stone quarry, earning up to 1,000 shekels (£120) a day in Jema'een, a dozen miles or so away but now couldn't get there, even to pick up his tools, because of the Israeli checkpoints. Just a routine incident for Nablus no doubt, but not too minor to attract a crowd of curious onlookers to the bleak scene.For all Balata's notoriety as a base for militants, these bystanders were distinctly muted and light on rhetoric, one thanking God that there had not been children playing as they often do in the area, another strongly condemning the recruitment of Husam Abdo as a would-be suicide bomber. It turned out to have blown up - not as local rumour immediately had it, because of another missile assassination, but because a bomb being prepared by a local Al Aqsa Brigades militant had detonated accidentally while he sat in the driver's seat away from prying eyes during Friday prayers. "You can argue whether this is going to succeed or not, but it's certainly not irrational."The big question remains whether disengagement from Gaza is an alternative rather than a step towards the final settlement envisaged in the much scorned roadmap.