Pakistan airstrikes kill 16 militants
Published: Mar 14, 2010 19:48 Updated: Mar 14, 2010 23:29
ISLAMABAD: Security forces backed by gunships killed 16 militants in Orakzai Agency, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) announced here on Sunday. So far, we have counted 16 dead," Col. Atique of ISPR told Arab News.
According to ISPR, fleeing militants from South Waziristan had gone into hiding in Orakzai Agency. He said they were mostly those militants who had lost contact with their field commanders".
Col. Atique said Pakistan Air Force was used for precision bombing.
Militants have gone on the offensive again after a recent lull in violence, challenging government assertions that an assault in the militant stronghold of South Waziristan had dealt a major blow to Pakistan's Al-Qaeda-backed Taleban.
The airstrikes came after a week of bombings, which killed 81 people, including soldiers, policemen and aid workers in the northwest and eastern regions of Pakistan.
Khaista Akbar, a government official, told Reuters the fighter jets carried out the strikes in the Ghund Mela village of Orakzai, an ethnic Pashtun tribal region.
"They carried out intense bombings and precisely targeted militant hideouts," he said.
The bombing killed 16 militants and completely destroyed three hideouts, he said.
Meanwhile, a Pakistan police official says suspected militants tried to blow up a NATO oil tanker Sunday in the southwestern province of Baluchistan, near the Afghan border.
Police official Zia Mandokhel said a bomb, planted in the truck's undercarriage, misfired, causing just a hole in the tanker and an oil spill. One person, a civilian, was injured.
The incident occurred in the border town of Chaman along an important route for NATO supplies heading into Afghanistan.
- With input from agencies
