The natives of Uzbekistan in Central Asia, cut off from their homeland for years, are the largest group among foreign Islamist militants backing Taliban fighters now in the crosshairs of US drone attacks and Pakistan ground troops.

"I don't believe that these guys are going to stay there and fight until dying. They will try to escape," said Rahimullah Yusufzai, an analyst specialising in the tribal areas. "They will keep fleeing -- to survive."

Government forces on October 17 began a major offensive designed to crush the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) movement in the mountainous tribal region of South Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan.

"Sherwangi was a hub of foreign fighters. Uzbek terrorists gave us a very good fight," Major General Khalid Rabbani, commander of Pakistan's 9th Infantry Division, told reporters flown into the battle zone last week.

After several days of resistance, Uzbek and other defenders abandoned the village of Sherwangi Tor to government troops, but continue their resistance elsewhere in the area, the military said.

On Saturday it reported stiff resistance and street fighting in Kanigurram, which the army has called an important Uzbek base.

"Many terrorists have been killed. Many others have fled in deeper territory but we cordoned off the entire area," Rabbani said.

But local residents and officials said Uzbeks were moving away from the area of fighting to find new safe havens in North Waziristan with their families.

Analysts say many belong to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) which, created in 1998, is often cited as a top security concern by governments in Central Asia and in Pakistan considered allies of Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan they carved out bases in the north and opposed the government of President Islam Karimov in Uzbekistan.

The United states branded IMU a terror organisation in 2000 and the Uzbeks were forced out of Afghanistan by the US-led invasion in late 2001.

Along with hundreds of foreign militants, they found shelter across the border in Pakistan's tribal belt, where they won the support of local tribesmen.

According to the military, that support waned after the Uzbeks killed several local people, and were involved in kidnapping and other crime.

"They have to survive. That's why they join all these powerful Taliban groups," Yusufzai said.

Although minor unrest still flares in Uzbekistan, the militants have failed to bring about a change in their homeland.

Mahmood Shah, who until 2006 was security chief for Pakistan's tribal belt, called the Uzbeks cannon fodder for Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

"They are tough soldiers," he said but, separated from their homeland, their lives have become "purposeless" and they are fighting for no real cause.

Shah described them as "desperate in the sense that they have no place to go."

Few Uzbeks cross the porous border to fight in Afghanistan where more than 100,000 NATO and US troops are battling a Taliban insurgency, analysts said.

Pakistan's military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas told reporters that government forces faced up to 10,000 militants, including 1,000 foreign fighters, in the South Waziristan area of operations.

Shah said he believed the Uzbeks would stay and fight, although they may be doing so without their leader Tahir Yuldashev.

Yuldashev was reportedly killed by a US missile strike in August around Sararogha, part of South Waziristan where Pakistan is focusing its offensive.

His death has not been verified, but Yuldashev's demise would be a blow. Shah said he stood out as an educated and religious man among a group which has "been away from civilisation for so long" that its members lack morals.

Yuldashev had a five-million-dollar US bounty on his head. Shah said Yuldashev had direct contact with Al-Qaeda, and defeating his followers is an important part of the battle against militancy in Pakistan.

"We should kill as many as possible because these are the foot soldiers that Al-Qaeda has," he said.

With communication lines down and journalists barred from independent access to South Waziristan, the Uzbeks could not be reached for comment.

In their quest to survive, the Uzbeks "will always remain aligned to some strong, local group," said Yusufzai.

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