Pakistan ? Islamic militants battled police and nine people were killed Tuesday in the deadliest flare-up of a six-month standoff at the capital’s most radical mosque.

Hundreds of Islamic students from the religious schools of the Lal Masjid, or Red Mosque, stoned and burned nearby government office buildings. Police fired tear gas and warning shots but also exchanged direct fire with militants armed with shotguns and assault rifles.

The four-hour gun battle, shown on independent TV channels, deepened the credibility problems of President Pervez Musharraf as he tries to maneuver himself into a new, five-year term this year. Musharraf, who has vowed since 1999 to end Islamic extremism in Pakistan, has been criticized for failing to halt the increasingly violent Lal Masjid rebellion, which was taking place barely 2,000 yards from his presidential office.

Since the mosque’s militant clerics defied authorities over a land dispute this winter and seized a government library, Lal Masjid has grown into a sandbag-reinforced fortress of Taliban-style Islam in the middle of Pakistan’s consciously Westernized capital.