Assailants killed five tribal elders who had helped Pakistan’s army hunt for al-Qaida-linked militants in a remote, lawless region near the Afghan border, residents and officials said Friday. The elders were gunned down in three attacks in various parts of South Waziristan, a deeply conservative mountainous region run by local tribes, and only nominally ruled by Islamabad. Officials have blamed Islamic militants in the region for previous attacks on pro-government elders in the country’s tribal areas, where Pakistan has deployed more than 70,000 troops to trace and arrest al-Qaida-linked militants and their local supporters. Full Story