WANA, 25 March 2004 — Pakistani troops fought new battles with gunmen near the Afghan border as fears spread yesterday of a campaign of retaliation against the offensive aimed at rooting out Al-Qaeda militants and their supporters. Authorities, meanwhile, gave the militants new deadline to surrender
A rocket attack on the city of Peshawar injured three people, intensifying concerns of a backlash by tribesmen furious at the offensive in the semi-autonomous region.
Thousands of Pakistani troops have been carrying out a major operation to kill or capture Al-Qaeda militants and anyone sheltering them in the wild border areas since last Monday.
At the main focus of the fighting, tribal elders set up to 500 beseiged fighters a new deadline to surrender. The militants, positioned in two villages near Wana, the main town of South Waziristan in northwest Pakistan, must give themselves up by 10 a.m. today or face “serious consequences”, the authorities warned.
The militants have been holding out against 7,500 Pakistani troops backed by helicopter gunships and artillery since last Thursday.
Fighting has been so intense that it was initially presumed that the militants were protecting a senior Al-Qaeda figure, although officials have backed off the claim in recent days.
As well as the Peshawar rocket attack, four people died Tuesday at a police post in Bannu, some 40 kilometers northeast of Wana. It was unclear if the deaths were caused by an explosive device or friendly fire, security sources said.
“These incidents are most probably a backlash to the anti-terrorism military operation,” a senior security official told AFP.
The assault is the largest mounted by Pakistani troops since they first entered the semi-autonomous tribal zone in the mountains along the Afghan frontier some two years ago, when the government joined the war on terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States.
Officials said the two sides exchanged fire in the early hours yesterday as the operation entered its ninth day. “There were occasional exchanges of fire in Shin Warzak area,” military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan told AFP. Witnesses said firing could also be heard in the area later yesterday.
The religiously conservative tribes, sympathetic to the Taleban and Al-Qaeda, are furious at civilian casualties and the destruction of private homes in the fighting and searches for militants.
At least 13 civilians have died during the offensive, apparently the victims of stray or misfired rockets and bullets. The toll of Pakistani troops killed or missing in tribal areas since the assault began a week ago stood at at least 49, by far the highest in Pakistan’s two-year Al-Qaeda hunt.
Western diplomats estimate the full military toll at between 60-100. At least 123 Pakistani tribesmen and foreigners have been arrested in the operation, most of them Chechen and Uzbeks who fled Afghanistan during the US-led operation to oust the former Taleban regime.
