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At Least 39 Militants Dead in Pakistan Gunfight
[An Nahar] At least 39 gunnies and four soldiers were killed Saturday in a day-long shootout in Pakistain's troubled northwestern tribal region, officials said.The fighting took place as Pak troops, backed by helicopter gunships, carried out a search operation around the town of Bara in the lawless Khyber tribal  district bordering Afghanistan."Four paramilitary soldiers were martyred and seven others were maimed in today's fighting," a security bigshot told Agence La Belle France Presse. "At least 39 gunnies were also killed," he said. Four civilians also died when a mortar shell hit a house, a government official said. "Four non-combatants were killed in the day-long shootout when a mortar shell hit their house," Khyber's deputy administration chief Syed Ahmed Jan told AFP. It was not immediately clear who fired the mortar shell, he said. A senior paramilitary official said the gunnies belonged to the Taliban-linked Laskhar-e-Islam group that is led by warlord Mangal Bagh. ...a former bus driver, now head of the Deobandi bandido group Lashkar-e-Islam and the Terror of Khyber Agency... Independent verification of the incident is not possible as access to the area is restricted by the military. Posted by: Fred 2012-03-11 |
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