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Forty militants killed in Mohmand operation
[Dawn] Pak troops backed by jets and helicopter gunships have killed 40 Death Eaters in a restive tribal area bordering Afghanistan in the past three days, a military commander said Thursday.I think the number of deaders has the same significance as "forty days and forty nights" in mythology... Brigadier Aftab Ahmad told AFP by telephone that his forces had destroyed 17 bully boy hideouts in the Baizai region under his command in the lawless tribal area of  Mohmand.... Named for the Mohmand clan of the Sarban Pahstuns, a truculent, quarrelsome lot. In Pakistain, the Mohmands infest their eponymous Agency, metastasizing as far as the plains of Beautiful Downtown Peshawar, Charsadda, and Mardan. Mohmands are also scattered throughout Pakistan in urban areas including Bloody Karachi, Lahore, and Quetta. In Afghanistan they are mainly found in Nangarhar and Kunar... "Militants were regularly attacking our posts on the Afghanistan border at Shonkari and Mithai and also targeting goods vehicles going to Afghanistan," he said. Ghalanai is the main town in Mohmand, where Pakistain has recently stepped up raids on bully boy hideouts, as it faces American pressure to conduct a separate offensive against the Al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network in North Wazoo. I'm still trying to figure why it takes "American pressure" to get the Paks to assert control over their own territory, assuming the guys actually controlling it aren't also controlling the government... "An operation was launched three days ago with the support of army aviation aircraft, helicopters and fighter jets. We killed at least 40 bully boys," Ahmad said. Maqsood Hussain, a government official in Baizai, confirmed the raids and casualties, but it was not immediately clear how the Pak officials reached the body count of 40. Mohmand is one of seven districts in Pakistain's semi-autonomous tribal belt, where Taliban and al-Qaeda-linked Death Eaters have carved out strongholds used to plot attacks on Pak, Afghan and Western targets. Posted by: Fred 2011-07-01 |
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