Pakistan mosque operation in final stage: army

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - An operation by Pakistani troops to flush out militants holed up in Islamabad's Red Mosque is in its "final stage" Wednesday, more than 24 hours after it began, the military said.

Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said the soldiers were trying to clear a residential area belonging to rebel leader Abdul Rashid Ghazi, who died in crossfire on Tuesday night.

Waheed said three more militants were killed overnight, bringing the toll of rebel deaths to at least 53. Eight troops also died. He said a final total would not be available until the complex had been cleared.

"The operation is in its final stage," Arshad told a private television channel.

"Its aim was to clear the mosque complex of militants and to ensure the evacuation of women and children. The final stage is underway in which the residential complex of Ghazi and his associates was to be cleared," he said.

After the militants had been cleared from the mosque, troops would sweep the booby-trapped complex "to ensure that there is no grenade, mines or other such things which could harm the people coming to work there," he added.

He said there would likely be a media visit to the mosque compound later in the day.