US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke visited northwest Pakistan's tribal region on Wednesday 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 Tuesday.
"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 travelled to Mohmand, one of seven of Pakistan's ethnic Pashtun tribal regions bordering Afghanistan, by helicopter.
(Reporting by Izaz Mohmand; Writing by Kamran Haider; Editing by Robert Birsel and Jerry Norton)