Pakistani security forces and suspected Islamic militants battled for a second day yesterday near the Afghan border, leaving four soldiers and 16 fighters dead, an army spokesman said.
Another 19 militants -- some of them surrendering and laying down their weapons -- were captured in the fighting in the North Waziristan tribal region, spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan said.
Eight militants were killed overnight after troops retaliated to a rocket attack by the fighters on a military base, and the eight others died in the ensuing fighting with security forces yesterday, he said.
The fighting -- that follows a spree of bloody clashes between pro-Taliban tribesmen and Pakistani troops in recent weeks -- erupted after a rocket attack late on Tuesday on a military base in Mana, a village about 50km west of the main town of Miranshah, that left at least two soldiers dead. Two more troops were killed in fighting yesterday.
Helicopter gunships backed ground troops in yesterday's fighting that had ended by late afternoon, Sultan said.
"There is an exchange of fire going on" in Shawal, a rugged, forested area about 15km from the Afghan border, he said.
Sultan said fierce fighting was going on to drive out militants holed up in at least fortress-like compounds.
He refused to identify the militants who surrendered or give their nationalities, adding that troops have the bodies of eight of those who were killed in the clashes yesterday.
Military officials have said Arab, Central Asian and Afghan fighters are present in the region, but local tribesmen are showing increasing resistance to the government in the lawless region. Last month, the army reported that scores of foreign and local militants were killed in fighting with security forces.
"Helicopter gunships have been flying in and out of Miranshah toward Shawal since morning," a resident of Miranshah said.
Shawal, an upland valley with forests and meadows, is about 50km west of Miranshah.
Militants also fired seven rockets at a military post at Tata Khel, a village located on the edge of Miranshah, that injured two soldiers late on Tuesday, a security official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to media.
Pakistan, a key US ally in the war on terror, has deployed about 80,000 troops in its tribal regions near Afghanistan in an effort to flush out al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
The latest clashes came as Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz visited the US and US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Richard Boucher made his first visit to Pakistan.
Asked to comment on a perception that Pakistan often launches crackdowns against militants when a senior US official is visiting here or a Pakistani leader travels to the US, Sultan said: "Did we ask them to attack [the troops] last night?"
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
BOMBARDMENT: Moscow sent more than 440 drones and 32 missiles, Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, in ‘one of the most terrifying strikes’ on the capital in recent months A nighttime Russian missile and drone bombardment of Ukraine killed at least 15 people and injured 116 while they slept in their homes, local officials said yesterday, with the main barrage centering on the capital, Kyiv. Kyiv City Military Administration head Tymur Tkachenko said 14 people were killed and 99 were injured as explosions echoed across the city for hours during the night. The bombardment demolished a nine-story residential building, destroying dozens of apartments. Emergency workers were at the scene to rescue people from under the rubble. Russia flung more than 440 drones and 32 missiles at Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade. Analysts hope it is a step toward repairing ties that soured in 2023, after then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied. An invitation extended by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the G7 leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to “reset” relations, former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. “This is a
RSS