Militants fired rockets at Pakistani forces in a lawless northwest tribal region, officials said yesterday, as jets targeted the hideouts of fighters loyal to a feared Taliban warlord.
Pakistan’s military, already locked in an eight-week-long offensive against Islamist militants in and around northwest Swat valley, has opened up a second front against Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud along the Afghan border.
“Rockets fired from unknown locations hit camps of security forces in the rugged mountainous tribal regions of North and South Waziristan on Sunday night,” a security official in the area said.
There were no reports of loss of life in the attacks, but one of 10 rockets targeting security forces in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, hit a house wounding eight civilians from the same family, the official said.
Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal regions are wracked with violence and are known as a hub for Taliban and al-Qaeda rebels who fled across the border to escape the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.
“Fighter jets bombarded militant hideouts in Salayrogha and Emarraghzai villages of Ladda town in South Waziristan on Monday morning,” another security official said.
He said that the war planes targeted the areas where Mehsud’s militants are believed to be hiding.
South Waziristan is Mehsud’s stronghold. Washington alleges that al-Qaeda fighters are in the region plotting attacks on Western targets.
Pakistani fighter jets stepped up air raids in South Waziristan early this month, apparently in preparation for a full-scale military onslaught into the hostile peaks to track down and eliminate Mehsud and his network.
The army says more than 1,500 rebels and 128 soldiers have been killed in operations the military launched in the northwestern districts of Lower Dir on April 26, Buner on April 28 and Swat on May 8.
Security forces launched the offensive to dislodge Taliban guerrillas from the three districts after rebels flouted a peace deal and thrust toward Islamabad in early April.
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