The government, led by the Pakistan People's Party of slain former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, is also facing rising public anger over a wave of missile strikes in the tribal belt, believed to be carried out by unmanned U.S. drones. Dozens of such raids have taken place since August, including back-to-back strikes Thursday and Friday in South Waziristan.
Friday's strike, which hit an abandoned girls school being used by insurgents, reportedly killed three people.
Militant leaders are the targets of these missile strikes, and officials say scores of insurgents have been killed in the wave of attacks. But no top-level Al Qaeda or Taliban commanders have been among the dead.
Friday's reopening of the mountain pass came amid continuing fighting elsewhere in Khyber, well away from the route.
Many of the most damaging attacks have come on the hundreds of trucks that routinely halt for days at terminals on the edge of Peshawar, waiting for permission to proceed. Last month, in one particularly brazen strike, hundreds of vehicles parked at truck stops were destroyed.
Militants had previously taken to hijacking trucks as they slowly transited the winding roads. In November, more than a dozen vehicles carrying military supplies were hijacked in a single incident within view of a post manned by Pakistani paramilitary troops.
In a sign of the continuing danger, the region's top administrator, Tariq Hayat Khan, told journalists in Jamrud, the main town in Khyber, that the route would be open only from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Khan said that the Khyber operation had turned up several weapons caches that included heavy machine guns and rocket launchers, and that nearly four dozen militants had been captured. But local witnesses said many of the insurgents had fled into the neighboring Mohmand tribal area rather than face the troops.
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laura.king@latimes.com
Special correspondent Zulfiqar Ali in Peshawar contributed to this report.
