Print

Mail

wiki links

Pakistani soldiers die in border sweep

Pakistani doctors give medical treatment to eight-year-old Azam Tariq at a hospital in the northwestern town of Dera Ismail Khan on Monday. Tariq was among four children critically injured during operations by Pakistani forces against suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban militants close to the Afghan border. PHOTO: REUTERS

Attackers ambushed a Pakistani army convoy heading toward a counterterrorism sweep against al-Qaeda militants near the Afghan border, killing at least 12 soldiers and injuring 15, officials said.

The unidentified attackers fired rockets that hit at least six army trucks in the ambush near Sarwakai, about about 50km east of Wana, the main town of the South Waziristan tribal region.

Some trucks were carrying petrol and were destroyed by fire in the attack on Monday, an official in Sarwakai said on condition of anonymity. He said 12 soldiers were killed and 15 were injured.

Army spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan confirmed the attack happened, and said army troops had cordoned off the area to search for the assailants, but refused to give more details.

Meanwhile, a tribal peace bid to end a week of fierce clashes near Wana between thousands of Pakistani troops and hundreds of al-Qaeda militants and sympathetic local tribesmen ended in failure, news reports said yesterday, with tribesmen refusing to cooperate.

"We were told that those wanted by the government are not there," Malik Ba Khan, one of the elders who traveled to the battle zone under a white flag on Monday, told Dawn newspaper.

Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf said last Thursday that a "high-value" target was likely at the site. Some senior Pakistani officials have said that they believe al-Qaeda No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri may have been there, though the government has repeatedly said it does not know who is inside.

The Pakistani military has clamped a 50km cordon to seal the area where the militants are cornered, and say they are confident nobody has escaped.

But the cordon did not exist at the disastrous start of the operation Mar. 16, when Pakistani forces who thought they were going to arrest local tribesmen were surprised by a ferocious barrage from within the compound walls. Fifteen soldiers and 26 militants died in the initial assault; the military then sent in thousands of reinforcements over the following two days.

Pakistan's military said it was conducting DNA tests to identify six suspected foreign terrorists killed in the fighting, but would not elaborate on whether they included any important terror figure.

The military sweep in South Waziristan is the largest in Pakistan's tribal regions since the government threw its support behind the US-led war on terrorism in late 2001. The operation has stirred anger in the tribal community, with local officials saying at least two dozen people including women and children were killed in army attacks on vehicles trying to flee the area at the weekend.

Brigadier Mahmood Shah, chief of security for the tribal areas, said Monday that 123 suspects have been arrested in the week-old offensive. Security officials say their prisoners included Pakistanis, Arabs, Chechens, Uzbeks and ethnic Uighurs from China's predominantly Muslim Xinjiang province.

The tribal peace delegation brought with it three government demands for the fighters: free 12 soldiers and two government officials taken captive last week; hand over tribesmen involved in the fighting; and kick out any foreigners or show the military where to track them down.

Shah had said he wasn't hopeful the delegation would succeed.

Meanwhile, assailants fired rockets in two attacks in the neighboring tribal region of North Waziristan, but caused no damage or injuries, an official said.

Late Monday, two rockets landed on a hillside close to a paramilitary post in Isha, near the region's main town, Miran Shah, an official there said on condition of anonymity. Two more rockets landed near the village of Spin Wam, he said, but had no more details.
This story has been viewed 2054 times.