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Pakistani troops resume assault

An unidentified tribesman comforts young villagers Haseena, 10, left, and her sister Asmeena, 2, hurt by shells during a battle between the Pakistani army and suspected al-Qaeda militants, at a hospital in Wana, South Waziristan, Pakistan, on Friday. The Pakistani army is using heavy artillery and helicopters to combat terrorists hiding along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. PHOTO: AP

Pakistani troops yesterday resumed their pounding of tribesmen and al-Qaeda militants in rural mud fortresses where they believe they have al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri trapped, while interrogators began grilling some of the 40 suspects captured in the raid for clues about the terror leader's whereabouts.

The fighting -- including thunderous artillery and swooping assaults by Cobra attack helicopters -- has forced an exodus of thousands of terrified civilians, who have poured out of the battle zone deep in South Waziristan. Many have taken refuge in Wana, the main town in the tribal zone, but there were indications the battle was following close on their heels.

Loud explosions and gunfire could be heard early yesterday in Gangikhel village, a hamlet of simple mud dwellings just 5km west of Wana. Previous fighting in Kaloosha, Azam Warsak and Shin Warsak was about twice that distance from Wana, close to the border with Afghanistan.

"The operation is on," army spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said yesterday.

Brigadier Mahmood Shah, the chief of security for tribal areas in northwestern Pakistan, said that some 40 suspects have been arrested in the operation, which began Tuesday, and some of the prisoners have been taken for interrogation to the provincial capital, Peshawar.

Security officials said the men included Pakistanis, Arabs, Chechens, Uzbeks and ethnic Uighurs from China's predominantly Muslim Xinjiang province, where a separatist movement is simmering. No senior al-Qaeda leaders were believed to be among them, but authorities hoped they would provide a better picture of the terrorists' heavily fortified lair.

There have been reports that at least 80 ethnic Uzbek Islamic militants, led by Qari Tahir Yaldash, a Taliban ally and deputy of slain Uzbek leader Juma Namangani, are in the Waziristan region. Namangani was killed during the US-led coalition's assault on Afghanistan that began in late 2001.

"Our people are interrogating them to determine who these terrorists are," Shah said.

"Some of them are foreigners," Shah said.

Up to 400 militants are believed holed up in the heavily fortified compounds, Sultan said Friday.

Fighting stopped in the evening on Friday but late in the night the troops began firing artillery guns, an intelligence official in Wana said on the condition of anonymity. Sultan said the Pakistani forces were joined by "a dozen or so" US intelligence agents in the ongoing operation. US satellites, Predator drones and other surveillance equipment hovered overhead.

Sultan put the number of troops killed in the operation at 17, most in a disastrous initial assault on Tuesday. But other military and intelligence officials said many more had died in the heaviest fighting on Thursday and Friday, and about a dozen soldiers are missing and feared taken hostage.

Shah said the fierce fighting, heavy fortifications and other intelligence led authorities to believe al-Zawahri might be among the militants. He said authorities had gotten "one or two reports" that the al-Qaeda No. 2 had been in the area in the recent past.

An Afghan intelligence official with connections in Pakistan's tribal region also said that al-Zawarhi was believed in the area of the Pakistan operation, in South Waziristan.
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