The gunbattles between a local tribal force and Taliban beturbanned goons erupted in
Kurram Agency...home of an intricately interconnected web of poverty, ignorance, and religious fanaticism, where the laws of cause and effect are assumed to be suspended, conveniently located adjacent to Tora Bora...
late Sunday, they said, adding that Pak forces later reinforced the tribal fighters and pounded bully boy positions with artillery.
"At least 27 gunnies and four members of peace lashkar (the tribal force) were killed in the fighting in Masuzai area of central Kurram," local government official Sher Buhadar told AFP.
The tribal lashkar was backed up by paramilitaries and artillery units of the Pakistain army, he added.
Regional commissioner Sahibzada Anees confirmed the fighting and said more than 30 people had been killed in the gunbattles.
The corpse counts could not be verified independently as the area is out of bounds to the media.
Army front man Major General Athar Abbas
... who is The Very Model of a Modern Major General...
said earlier this month that a military operation in the area would clear it "of beturbanned goons involved in all kinds of terrorist activities, including kidnapping and killing of locals, and suicide kabooms".
Pakistain's seven tribal districts bordering Afghanistan are rife with a homegrown insurgency, and are strongholds of the Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Washington has described them as the most dangerous place on Earth.
Kurram also suffers from sectarian violence between majority Sunni Mohammedans and minority Shiites.