Police: Taliban kill 2 accused spies in Pakistan

Police found the bullet-ridden bodies Sunday in an abandoned village in North Waziristan, part of Pakistan's lawless tribal area along the border with Afghanistan, said Khan Zada, a local police official.

A note signed by the Taliban and found with the bodies said the two brothers from the Afghan city of Khost near the Pakistani border were abducted and killed because they were suspected U.S. spies, said Zada.

U.S.-led forces toppled the hard-line Taliban regime in Afghanistan in 2001, but many fled to Pakistan, where they continue to stage attacks across the border. The U.S. has responded to the threat with occasional missile strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas, which have prompted outcries from local residents and the Pakistani government.

Washington has also pressured Pakistan to step up military operations in the tribal areas and adjacent North West Frontier Province, where militants also have sought sanctuary. These assaults have been unpopular with local residents and officials accustomed to little interference from Pakistan's central government.

On Saturday, the information minister in North West Frontier Province, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, criticized an ongoing military operation in the Swat Valley, a once-idyllic mountain getaway that has been infested by militants.

"A general public perception is emerging that innocent people are being killed in the operation the army is doing," Hussain told a news conference. "A request would be made to the army to make the operation more effective."

In Bajur, government official Jamil Khan said four militants and three civilians were killed in clashes with insurgents and airstrikes by security forces.

The Pakistani government also has faced a low-level insurgency in the southwest province of Baluchistan, where militant tribesman accuse the government of pocketing too much revenue from the region's natural gas reserves and ignoring development needs.

Residents also have complained they have not benefited enough from the construction of a massive deep sea port in the provincial town of Gwadar, which officially opened for business Sunday.