Pakistan forces hunting al Qaeda-linked militants rained bombs and shells on a remote tribal region near the Afghan border on Friday where the army said more than 53 people had been killed in three days of fighting. Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat told Pakistan’s parliament the military would continue its assault in the Shakai area of South Waziristan until it had been cleared of militants. At least two aircraft bombed two houses where militants were thought to be holed up in the Shakai area, about 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Islamabad and 17 km (11 miles) west of the regional capital, Wana, witnesses told Reuters by telephone. Many people, including women and children, walked for miles to safety after authorities ordered residents of Shakai to evacuate the battle zone.
Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan told a news conference that the army had killed 35 militants but lost 15 of its men in fighting on Wednesday and Thursday. Three civilians have also been reported killed but Sultan said he did not have casualty figures from Friday’s fighting. He said militants attacked a post of Pakistani paramilitary force on Wednesday, killing nine troops. "They overpowered the Frontier Constabulary men and killed them in cold blood. They shot them in the forehead. They mutilated their dead bodies. They also cut away certain parts of their bodies," he said.
| We can guess which ones... |
Sultan said Pakistani forces had destroyed a house of a tribesman where an al Qaeda member used to stay. They had also targeted a militant training camp and an al Qaeda safe house. "The fighting is going on all the three targets. The situation is fluid and it is difficult to tell the number of fresh casualties," he added. The interior minister told Reuters the government suspected a link between the fighting and an attempt to kill the military commander in the southern port city of Karachi on Thursday.
| Holmes! How do you do it? |
"Yes there is a link between the two and we have some found some clues," Hayat said, but declined to give details. The Karachi corps commander, Lieutenant-General Ahsan Saleem Hayat, survived but 10 people were killed in the ambush. "The terrorists feel that it is basically the army that is cutting across their agenda," Sultan said. "They want to destablise the country."
| In Pakistan? Coal to Newcastle... |
A Pashtun tribesman who has rallied support among his clan for foreign militants in South Waziristan told the British Broadcasting Corp’s Pashto-language service on Thursday that the attack in Karachi was a response to the military’s operation on tribal territory. Tribesman Nek Mohammed said more militant attacks were planned in Pakistani cities, including Islamabad and Rawalpindi. Sultan said on Thursday that the government was determined to root-out foreign militants. But he added: "We cannot use overwhelming force. We cannot use indiscriminate fire power."
| Why not? The Bad Guys do. And they cut your guys' nuts off... |
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