Islamabad, Pakistan ? Pakistan has taken possession of five U.S. helicopters fitted with sophisticated communication and surveillance systems to help hunt for al-Qaida and Taliban fugitives along its border with Afghanistan, a senior official said Friday.

Delivery of the new hardware comes amid deadly clashes between Pakistani authorities and al-Qaida suspects in the tribal-controlled border region, where al-Qaida and Taliban fighters are believed to be sheltering.

“These helicopters are equipped with the latest facilities and will help us in fighting against terrorism,” Brig. Javed Iqbal Cheema told The Associated Press.

Cheema, the director-general of the Interior Ministry’s National Crisis Management Cell, said the helicopters would be used to boost security in the border zone.

He said the United States would also supply three surveillance planes to Pakistan. The planes were currently being fitted with surveillance equipment and would be delivered within a few weeks, he said.

Pakistan took possession of the helicopters on Wednesday, the same day four al-Qaida suspects and three Pakistani officials were killed in a gunbattle near the border town of Khohat. Authorities found explosives in the van the men were traveling in, leading them to suspect they were planning a terrorist attack.

The van was coming from Wana district in the tribal belt, officials said.

On June 25, a group of al-Qaida suspects opened fire on Pakistani troops in Wana, starting a gunbattle that killed 10 Pakistani soldiers. Two al-Qaida suspects also died, one was captured and dozens more escaped. Thousands of troops, assisted by U.S. intelligence, are conducting house-to-house searches and manning road checkpoints looking for the fugitives.

U.S. military officials say most al-Qaida men and senior Taliban officials have fled Afghanistan and are hiding in Pakistan’s tribal belt, which is controlled by local tribal leaders rather than the central Islamabad government.

President Gen. Pervez Musharraf has said that Pakistan has detained 300 al-Qaida members in the region and estimated that 1,000 more may be there.

Musharraf said last week that al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was probably dead and that if bin Laden was alive he was probably not in Pakistan.

Musharraf’s remarks came a few days after Pakistan officials published a newspaper advertisement denouncing bin Laden and his top aides as “dangerous religious terrorists” and asking for public help in hunting them down.