ISLAMABAD, 11 September 2004 — Skirmishes continued yesterday in the tense tribal region of South Waziristan near the Afghan border where Pakistani jets flattened an alleged Al-Qaeda training camp, killing at least 50 fighters, residents and the army said yesterday.
Another 10 fighters, mostly foreigners, died in clashes with government troops on Thursday, making it one of the bloodiest attacks on Al-Qaeda-linked militants since Pakistan sent tens of thousands of troops into lawless tribal areas last year.
Acting on a tip, army warplanes on Thursday bombed an alleged Al-Qaeda facility located at Dila Khula, a South Waziristan village about 25 km northeast of the region’s main town, Wana. The action sparked skirmishes in the area, with gunmen firing on some vehicles carrying troops.
Army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said yesterday that troops “did exchange fire with some miscreants” after Thursday’s operation, but the “situation is now under control.”
“A number of militants were killed and the troops retrieved the bodies of at least six dead — five foreigners and one local tribesman,” Sultan said. The remains of the local man were returned to the tribesmen.
Sultan said no high-level Al-Qaeda operatives had been killed in the raid involving jet fighters and helicopter gunships.
Speaking to reporters in Peshawar, he also denied residents’ reports that dozens of civilians died in the attacks. “I am giving you an explicit statement that there were no civilian casualties, including women and children.”
Sultan described the site targeted on Thursday as a training camp where foreign militants were actively engaged in learning how to use weapons and make bombs using electronic circuits. He said security forces also suffered some casualties but declined to give details. “The security forces suffered some dead and wounded but their number cannot be disclosed.”
He said Pakistani forces had captured five suspected militants, one of whom was injured, but did not give their nationalities.
However, he clarified that ground forces had not moved into the area where the training facility was blown up, adding “local people might have buried those foreigners and their supporters killed in the assault.”
Earlier, Sultan and some other military sources said 90 percent of the 50 dead terror suspects were foreigners — including Uzbeks, Chechens, and Arabs.
Pakistan has frequently overstated the scope of its military operations, claiming to have captured or killed foreigners that turn out to be local tribesmen, or to have zeroed in on top Al-Qaeda men.
A large number of Central Asians and some Arab militants are believed to be living in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Many came to fight alongside US-backed Mujahideen against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s, and some never left. The area’s tribes are fiercely autonomous and deeply resentful of the army’s presence, making it an ideal hideout.
Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told reporters in Karachi that 150 to 300 foreign militants remained in South Waziristan. He repeated a government offer of amnesty by which foreign fighters could register with the authorities and go free if they denounced militancy. “But bullet will be answered with bullet,” he added.
Residents said they saw helicopters flying low as soldiers laid siege to Dila Khula district and blockaded all roads in the area to restrict people from moving. The area is a stronghold of the Mehsud clan, a sub-tribe of the Waziri tribe which has been one of the most sympathetic toward Al-Qaeda.
Authorities demolished shops belonging to tribal chief Malik Baa Khan in Wana bazaar yesterday as a punishment for an attack on troops there Wednesday, local residents said. The shootout between militants and security forces in the bazaar left eight people dead and three soldiers wounded.
Khan was last seen in the area in August and officials suspect he is hiding somewhere in the region along with foreign militants. Authorities say they demolished Khan’s shops under a tribal law for failing to stop the attacks against the army.
The army has frequently launched attacks in North and South Waziristan to flush out militants. Hundreds of people, including civilians, have died in the attacks.
Pakistan has deployed about 70,000 troops in tribal regions bordering Afghanistan to hunt remnants of Al-Qaeda and Taleban. The government has said the operations would continue until terror suspects are captured or eliminated.
US officials believe Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and deputy Ayman Al-Zawahri may be hiding along the rugged Afghan-Pakistan frontier. Rashid said while there was evidence Zawahri and Taleban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar were at large, it was not known whether Osama was alive.
“I am saying this not on the basis of any information or news. It is my analysis as a political activist,” he said.
— With input from agencies
