WANA, Pakistan - Attackers set military vehicles ablaze and terrified townspeople streamed out of a remote tribal village today, a day after one of the bloodiest clashes in Pakistan's crackdown on al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives left 39 people dead.

Mosque loudspeakers blared a warning from authorities that residents must leave the besieged village of Kaloosha by 3 p.m. because of the violence. Many appeared to be heeding the call.

One villager who fled Kaloosha said hundreds of people from about 60 families left the village of 6,000 people in an exodus that began late Tuesday.

"People are scared. People are worried," Eid Gul said after arriving in Wana, the main town in the

tribal

region.

The death toll from Tuesday's raid on a mud-brick compound in Kaloosha rose to 39 as some troops involved in the operation died of their injuries, a military spokesman said. Suspected terrorists and the tribesmen accused of harboring them fired on troops from the compound and from nearby hills.

Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said 15 paramilitary soldiers died in the operation in South Waziristan - up from the nine reported earlier. At least 24 suspects - including some foreigners presumed to be members of al-Qaida - were killed.

There was no indication that any senior al-Qaida or Taliban leaders were killed, but the bodies had not yet been identified.

The raid began a day after Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf promised to rid the territory of foreign terrorists. It also coincided with a visit to the region by Secretary of State Colin Powell.

U.S. forces over the weekend announced the start of an operation - dubbed Mountain Storm - to capture terror fugitives, including bin Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar. Powell said he would discuss the Kaloosha operation with President Gen. Pervez Musharraf on Thursday in Islamabad.