ISLAMABAD, 30 August 2004 — Three Pakistani soldiers were killed and seven suffered injuries in two separate attacks in the tribal region near Afghan border, officials said yesterday.
Two soldiers were killed when rockets believed fired by Al-Qaeda militants ripped through their living quarters in a tribal town of South Waziristan, while a solider died in a roadside explosion in neighboring North Waziristan.
“One soldier was killed on the spot and another died at hospital, when three rockets fired by militants exploded here at Scouts Camp early Sunday morning,” said an official in Wana, the district capital of the tribal South Waziristan region.
Four of the injured soldiers were in a critical condition and had been shifted to Bannu, about 130 kilometers northeast of Wana, while another injured solider was in a stable condition, the official said.
In the second incident three soldiers were hurt when their vehicle, traveling with a convoy between Razmak and Shuwwal region in North Waziristan, hit a homemade bomb yesterday, local administration and intelligence officials said. “One soldier died on the way to hospital,” a local official told AFP.
Pakistan military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shuakat Sultan confirmed the injuries, and said no one was killed. “There were only a few soldiers who got hurt when their vehicle hit an improvised explosive device,” Sultan said but did not specify the number injured. Troops hunting militants believed to be hiding in the area have come under rocket or mortar attacks since they launched a five-day operation in June and destroyed several suspected hide-outs.
A June operation in the Shakai Valley, 25 kilometers north of Wana, left 65 militants and 18 soldiers dead. Pakistani authorities say 500-600 Al-Qaeda suspects, including Chechen and Uzbek fighters, sneaked into the region after a US-led military offensive ousted Afghanistan’s hard-line Taleban regime in late 2001. Security forces in a stepped-up campaign in Pakistan have arrested more than 60 Al-Qaeda suspects since last month.
The security forces launched a crackdown against Al-Qaeda-linked militants in urban centers and have arrested dozens since July. The arrests followed that of a computer expert who provided crucial information about Al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan and plans to launch attacks in Britain and the United States.
