U.S. Envoy Holbrooke Visits Northwest Pakistan

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari (right) met with Richard Holbrooke in Islamabad on February 10.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) -- U.S. special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke visited northwest Pakistan's tribal region, where security forces have been battling Islamist militants, officials said.

Holbrooke, best known for his role in negotiating an end to the war in the former Yugoslavia more than 15 years ago, arrived in Pakistan late on Monday and met top government and military leaders on February 10.

"He went to the headquarters of the Mohmand Rifles and was given a briefing about military operations," said a government official in the region, who declined to be identified, referring to a paramilitary force in the Mohmand region.

An intelligence agency official in the northwest said Holbrooke had traveled to Mohmand, one of seven of Pakistan's ethnic-Pashtun tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, by helicopter.