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Army takes Sultanwas, kills 81
ISLAMABAD: Troops drove the Taliban out from a major urban stronghold of Sultanwas after intense clashes on Wednesday, killing 81. One soldier was killed and nine seriously wounded, the Inter-Services Public Relations director general said in a daily briefing.The Taliban had made concrete underground bunkers and set up ammunition dumps in the town, Maj Gen Athar Abbas told reporters. Six vehicles used by Taliban clad in black Elite Force uniforms were also destroyed during the operation. The security forces also defused seven improvised explosive devices. To a question, he said the military was investigating where the Taliban got the Elite Force vehicles and uniforms from. A search-and-destroy operation in the former Taliban stronghold of Peochar valley and clearance of compounds in Matta was in progress, the chief spokesman for the military told reporters. He said a search-and-cordon operation also continued in Kanju. Three soldiers were injured during the operation in Kanju and Ayub Bridge, he said. An operation to clear the Takhtaband village was in progress, he said, in which one soldier had died and another six had been injured. To a question, the ISPR director general said the army was trying to keep the loss of civilian life and property as low as possible and added the operation will be completed at the earliest. General Abbas said Pakistan was facing a double threat one internal and the other on its eastern borders and until a long-term solution is found to resolve the issues, the threat will remain in place. Asked about the dead bodies of the Taliban that the army says it had killed, the military spokesman said it was against the armys policy to release footage of the dead bodies of terrorists. He said the bodies had been buried in mass graves. He declined to confirm the death of Mullah Fazlullah and Muslim Khan, but said they had been targeted. Gen Abbas said there was no authentic intelligence available to confirm they had been killed.
Posted by: Steve White 2009-05-21 |
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