Fighter jets pounded suspected insurgent hideouts in South and North Waziristan, where the military says it is using air raids to lay the groundwork for a full-scale assault against Pakistani Taliban warlord Baitullah Mehsud.

Pakistan has offered a 615,000-US-dollar reward for information leading to the capture, dead or alive, of Mehsud, who is holed up in South Waziristan and who has been blamed for some of the worst attacks in the nuclear-armed country.

About 2,000 people have died in bombings since July 2007 and the United States has put Pakistan at the heart of its war against Al-Qaeda and efforts to stabilise Afghanistan, welcoming a military push to clear out Taliban havens.

"At least seven militants were killed after jet fighters pounded their hideouts in Saam village of South Waziristan," a security official told AFP on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

"Three houses, one school occupied by militants and a Taliban office, were targeted in the air strike," he added.

In North Waziristan, five rebels were killed when helicopters shelled their hideouts in the town of Madda Khel in retaliation for an ambush which killed 12 soldiers Sunday, said a security official in the region's main town Miranshah.

Overnight, 15 Afghan-bound Taliban fighters were killed in a gun battle with tribesman in the region of Kurram, which is also part of Pakistan's tribal belt that falls outside direct government control, officials said.

The clash erupted when militants -- heading to the eastern Afghan province of Khost -- were crossing an area dominated by the Toori tribe of Shiite Muslims late Sunday, local administration official Siddiq Ahmed told AFP.

"The gun battle left 15 militants and two Toori tribesmen dead," he said.

Security officials confirmed the casualties near the town of Parachinar, bordering Afghanistan, and said Tooris feared the Taliban had infiltrated the area.

Taliban hardliners, who are Sunnis, consider Shiites non-Muslims and the area has been troubled by sectarian tensions.

At least three civilians were killed in the village of Kaloosha, about 17 kilometres (10 miles) west of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan.

"First militants fired rockets at an army camp in Wana, after which troops responded with artillery fire," said local government official Ghafoor Shah.

"One of the shells hit people coming out of a mosque in Kaloosha village and killed three people and wounded another seven," Shah told AFP.

It was not clear where the shell was fired from. Security officials in the area confirmed the death toll.

Fighting in Pakistan's tribal belt follows two months of assaults to root out the Taliban from three districts of North West Frontier Province.

Commanders say those assaults are nearly over, but sporadic fighting has continued and many areas have been devastated by the offensive, leaving it unclear how an estimated two million displaced people can easily return home.

In Buner, where Taliban militants advanced towards Islamabad two months ago, sparking the military operations, a bomb exploded, wounding at least eight people, three of them security officials, police said.

The bomb exploded in a bazaar in Swarhi town as displaced civilians queued up to collect food from a state-run depot after recently returning from camps, said police officer Abdul Rashid Khan.

"The bomb, planted under a bridge, wounded eight people including three police officials," he told AFP. A private car was also damaged, he added.

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