ISLAMABAD, 8 October 2007 — Pakistani soldiers backed by helicopter gunships and jets killed 65 pro-Taleban militants but lost 20 of their own men in fierce fighting in a tribal area on the Afghan border, officials and witnesses said yesterday.
The fighting began when militants ambushed a military convoy near Mir Ali town in North Waziristan on Saturday night.
Casualties mounted as the army struck back and fresh clashes broke out in other areas close to Mir Ali, known as an Al-Qaeda haunt, and the fighting continued into yesterday evening, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said.
He said fighter jets were also used in the operation. “Helicopter gunships and jets are pounding the area. I could see huge flames of fire rising from the area,” a resident of Mir Ali told Reuters.
Local residents said four civilians also died, including three women.
Separately the military said security forces arrested two militants in the same troubled tribal area — the region where the United States alleges that Al-Qaeda and the Taleban have been regrouping since 9/11.
“The miscreants were fired upon by security forces when they were fleeing from the site after planting an IED (improvised explosive device)” it said in a statement.
President Pervez Musharraf has been under mounting pressure to tackle Al-Qaeda and Taleban militants who US officials allege have based themselves in the tribal areas since fleeing over the Afghan border in 2001.
Musharraf, a key US ally at the center of international efforts to combat religious extremism, won a landslide victory in Saturday’s presidential election and pledged to continue the fight “100 percent” against “terrorism.” Musharraf crushed token rivals in the vote by national and provincial parliaments that was mostly boycotted by the opposition, although the Supreme Court must hear legal challenges before the result is declared official.
Pakistan has suffered a string of extremist attacks since security forces raided the Al-Qaeda linked Red Mosque in Islamabad in July.
Nearly 300 people have died in attacks since the crisis, most of which have been suicide bombings. A further 250 militants have been killed in clashes with security forces since the mosque standoff, the army says.
Pro-Taleban militants have also been holding more than 200 Pakistani soldiers in nearby South Waziristan district since abducting them in late August.
They shot dead three of the soldiers earlier this month to put pressure on the government to halt military operations in the rugged region, officials said. Pakistan’s military has around 90,000 soldiers fighting Al-Qaeda and Taleban rebels on the border with Afghanistan.
