 MIR ALI: Security forces arrested 17 suspected militants crossing over into Pakistani tribal territory at Lawara Mandi on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in North Waziristan Agency on Saturday. Sources told Daily Times that militants attacked a camp of the coalition forces in Afghanistan near the border with Pakistan with rockets and fled from the area. The coalition forces informed Islamabad of the attack and asked for a search on the Pakistan side of the border.
A Inter Services Public Relations press release said the search operation was launched by security forces early on Saturday morning in a madrassah compound about a kilometre north of Alwara Mandi. The sources said regular troops and Tochi Scouts, aided by 10 helicopters, arrested the 17 suspects at Lawara Mandi, 18 kilometres west of Miran Shah, the headquarters of North Waziristan. They were shifted in helicopters to Bannu for interrogation. The sources said all of the arrested men appeared to be Pakistanis. Two people, one of them an Afghan, were wounded in a shootout during the raid, an intelligence official who asked not to be named told Reuters. The sources added that soon after the attack, coalition forces arrested three Pakistani suspects and shifted them to an undisclosed location in Afghanistan. The North Waziristan political administration told Daily Times that they were not informed about the operation.
| As has become increasingly obvious, all the arrested "Taliban" were Paks. |
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