Associated Press

A Pakistani soldier prays next to boxes filled with ammunition for 130mm artillery pieces Wednesday at the Khar headquarters of the Frontier Corps on the border with Afghanistan, in the Bajur tribal region, Pakistan. Pakistan is battling surging attacks by al-Qaida and Taliban militants. Most of them are based in the rugged and lawless tribal region across from Afghanistan, where U.S. and NATO forces are fighting an increasingly tenacious Islamist insurgency. Al-Qaida leaders Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri are believed to be hiding somewhere along the border.