After days of these reports from Pakistan, I’m almost beginning to believe that Pervez Musharraf is serious about rooting out the freakazoids: Pakistani Warplanes Bomb Militant Hideouts. This can’t all be for show.

WANA, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani warplanes, backed by helicopter gunships, bombed hideouts of al Qaeda-linked militants on Saturday in a fourth day of fighting in the mountainous tribal region bordering Afghanistan. Pashtun tribesmen also heard artillery fire as the Pakistani forces intensified an assault in the Shakai area of South Waziristan, 250 miles southwest of Islamabad. Casualty updates were scanty on Saturday, but officials have counted at least 54 people killed in the fighting since the offensive began.

“I woke up to the roar of jets. Then I saw three helicopters flying in the direction of Shakai,” said one resident of Wana, the main town of South Waziristan.

“There was a lot of firing, like a guerrilla battle going on all night,” said a local in Shakai.

Residents saw air strikes on the slopes of the nearby Tangari hills, where brush and boulders provide fine cover for guerrillas.

Afghan refugees in South Waziristan were given 72 hours to leave by authorities. Locals saw many Aghans quitting the Karikot refugee camp a few miles south of Wana, and said they were headed back to Afghanistan.