Pakistani forces killed eight suspected al-Qaeda fighters on Thursday and arrested 18 in an operation near the Afghan border touted as a demonstration of commitment to the US-led war on terror.
In neighboring Afghanistan, two Canadian peacekeepers were killed and three hurt when their vehicle hit a landmine, Canada's first casualties since joining the NATO-led force in August.
Afghan officials reported another 17 deaths, including 10 soldiers and two children, taking to more than 300 the number of people killed in violence since the start of August, much of it blamed on a resurgent Taliban.
PHOTO: AFP
An official from the ousted hardline regime said the militia's elusive one-eyed supreme leader Mullah Omar had approved a new commander for southern Afghanistan, Mullah Wakil Ahmed, and attacks were likely to be stepped up.
Just outside Angor Adda, a dusty Pakistani frontier town, small-arms fire crackled and a Cobra helicopter swooped overhead firing machine guns at positions in the rugged tribal country.
Reporters taken by helicopter to the scene, 350km southwest of the capital, Islamabad, saw four dead bodies under blankets and military officials said there were four more lying where they fell.
Major General Faisal Alavi said the guerrillas put up stiff resistance. Two Pakistani soldiers were killed and two wounded by grenades, according to a military spokesman.
Eighteen fighters were arrested, some possibly of Arabic or Central Asian origin and the rest apparently Pakistani or Afghan. Some detainees were blindfolded and all had their hands tied.
A large cache of arms, mines and basic surveillance equipment was found in one of the rebel compounds.
Alavi, commander of Pakistani special forces in the area where the operation took place, said some captives appeared to be from Afghanistan's Taliban, overthrown in 2001. The presence of foreign fighters suggested al-Qaeda involvement.
The sweep came on the day US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage had been expected in Pakistan on a regional tour. His visit has been delayed until today, Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan said.
A US State Department official said Washington welcomed Pakistan's "current offensive against terrorist training camps on its borders with Afghanistan."
"We welcome Pakistan's continuing cooperation in the war against terrorism and we appreciate Pakistan's commitment to improve security along its border with Afghanistan," said the official, who asked not to be identified.
A Pakistani military statement said the operation showed Pakistan's commitment as a front-line ally in the war on terror "to eliminate terrorism in all its forms from her soil."
Alavi told reporters troops surrounded a compound where they believed al-Qaeda fighters were hiding early on Thursday.
He said about 40 militants had been seen crossing into Pakistan's semi-autonomous South Waziristan agency carrying the bodies of fighters killed in clashes inside Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has long accused Islamabad of not doing enough to stop Islamic militants it says cross from Pakistan's remote border regions to carry out strikes on US and Afghan targets.
Most of the cross-border raids have been blamed on Taliban remnants resurgent in some parts of Afghanistan.
Many Taliban and al-Qaeda guerrillas are believed to have hidden in Pakistan's border areas, possibly including Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri.
An audio tape purporting to be of Zawahri was aired on Arabic television channels last week in which he urged Pakistanis to overthrow President Pervez Musharraf for "betraying" Islam by supporting US military action.
Separately, Pakistani police said on Thursday they had arrested five suspected Islamic militants in the southern city of Hyderabad, believed to belong to a extremist group blamed for last year's bombing outside the US consulate in Karachi.
Afghan state media reported that security forces on Thursday arrested five "terrorists," one a foreigner, who had trained abroad to carry out attacks in Kabul.
Major Kevin Arata, a spokesman for the peacekeeping force in the capital, said the Canadian soldiers died when their jeep hit a land mine in Kabul.
It was the worst incident to hit the International Security Assistance Force since four German soldiers were killed and 31 injured in a suicide car bomb attack on their bus in June.
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