62 die as jets pound Taleban hide-outs
Published: Sep 2, 2010 00:43 Updated: Sep 2, 2010 00:43
PESHAWAR: Pakistani government air raids have killed up to 62 militants, their family members and other civilians with no ties to the fighters, officials said on Wednesday.
Three strikes on Tuesday night targeted Pakistani Taleban militants in one of their strongholds in the Tirah Valley in the northwestern Khyber region on the Afghan border.
"We have reports that 40 to 45 terrorists were killed," a security official told Reuters. Taleban insurgents often deny official death tolls of militants.
More airstrikes by helicopter gunships killed 17 militants and destroyed three of their hideouts on Wednesday in Khyber's neighboring tribal region of Kurram, intelligence officials said.
There was no independent verification of the casualties and militants often deny or dispute government figures.
Pakistani forces have stepped up air strikes in Khyber and adjoining Pashtun tribal lands in recent months against activists who fled military offensives in the Taliban strongholds of Swat and South Waziristan bordering Afghanistan last year.
Air strikes could undermine efforts to win over civilians for the fight against the Taleban.
"Some of the families were living in the vicinity of these hideouts and they were also among the dead," said the security official of the attacks in Khyber.
Rehan Khattak, a government official in Khyber, said six civilians, including women and children, were killed in one of the strikes and they had nothing to do with militants. "Four people were also wounded. They were members of Kokikhel," Khattak told Reuters, referring to a pro-government Pashtun tribe which dominates Khyber.
Anar Bacha, 32, one of the wounded, said they were innocent.
"We are going to our home in a cab when all of a sudden planes appeared and began targeting us," he said. "We are innocent. We are Kokikhels. We are not terrorists."
In April, up to 50 members of the same tribe were killed in an air raid in Tirah after they were mistaken for Taleban, prompting an apology from Pakistan Army chief Gen. Ashfaq Kayani.
Khyber is a key route for US and allied convoys carrying supplies for troops fighting militants in Afghanistan. Fighters frequently attack these convoys, forcing the United States to look at developing alternate routes.
Meanwhile, the US State Department is adding the Pakistani Taleban to a terrorism blacklist and targeting the group and its leaders with financial and travel sanctions.
In a notice published Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the group, known as the Tehrik-e-Taleban or TTP, advances terrorism threatening American interests and US national security. She designated the group a "foreign terrorist organization" under US law.
Lawmakers have been pushing for the move since earlier this year when a Pakistani-born American pleaded guilty to the failed May 1 Times Square car bombing. The man confessed that he had been trained for the attack by the Pakistani Taleban to avenge attacks on Muslims by US forces overseas.
US prosecutors have charged the leader of the Pakistani Taleban, Hakimullah Mehsud, for the plot that killed seven CIA employees at an American base in Afghanistan last December, the US Justice Department said on Wednesday.
Mehsud, believed to be in the tribal areas of Pakistan, was accused of conspiracy to kill Americans overseas and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, the Justice Department said.
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ALAWI FRANCIS
Sep 3, 2010 01:01
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