MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, 10 October 2007 — Pakistani warplanes bombed a village bazaar near the Afghan border yesterday, killing more than 50 suspected militants and civilians and wounding scores of others during the most deadly fighting since Pakistan threw its support behind the US-led war on terror six years ago.
There has been intense fighting since Saturday night around the town of Mir Ali, and nearly 200 people had been killed before yesterday’s airstrike.
“Aircraft were used to attack militants positions near Mir Ali this afternoon,” military spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said.
Thousands of families were fleeing the town of 50,000 and outlying villages, making their way on foot, in tractor trailers and cars. Airstrikes earlier destroyed most houses around Essori, a village near Mir Ali where most of the fighting was concentrated. “We don’t have any place to live,” said villager Mohammad Anwar. “We have sent our children to other areas because children are scared that the bombing could start again.”
Residents of another village, Epi, said it was rocked by a dozen explosions yesterday afternoon that destroyed homes and shops. Abdul Sattar, a grocery shop owner, said he had counted more than 60 dead and more than 150 wounded. He said many of the victims were mutilated.
“Some did not have heads, hands or legs. Some people were searching for their children and women,” Sattar told The Associated Press by telephone from Epi. The bazaar had been crowded with people from surrounding villages buying food to break their daylong Ramadan fast, he said.
Maj. Gen. Arshad told Geo television that military aircraft targeted militant hide-outs, struck “one or two places” near the town of Mir Ali — Epi lies about four km away — and local tribesmen had reported about 50 militants were killed.
He said the airstrikes might have killed some civilians who were living in the areas where militant hide-outs were targeted, but he had no exact numbers.
“We had confirmed reports about the presence of militants, and the air power was used to target those militant hide-outs,” he said.
Another resident, Noor Hassan, said both militants and civilians were killed and that he was fleeing the area. He said the nearby village of Hader Khel was also bombed.
The fighting broke out in North Waziristan on Saturday after a roadside bomb hit a truckload of paramilitary troops, sparking bitter clashes. The bodies of dozens of soldiers, many with their throats slit, have been recovered from deserted areas of the region, fleeing residents said. The violence comes as Gen. Pervez Musharraf tries to secure another term as president, vowing to shore up Pakistan’s troubled effort against Islamic extremism, particularly in its border regions where Osama Bin Laden and his deputy Ayman Al-Zawahri are still suspected hiding.
Pakistani troops have suffered mounting losses as they try to reassert state authority in a swath of mountainous territory where warlords supportive of the Taleban and Al-Qaeda have seized control. Now the army appears to be resorting to heavy firepower.
Sattar accused the army of “oppressing” the local Pashtun tribespeople. He said journalists should visit the area so they could see that the “miscreants” — a byword in Pakistan for militants — targeted by security forces were in fact women and children.
Pakistan struck a controversial cease-fire deal with militants in North Waziristan last year. US officials criticized the pact, claiming it gave a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and provided a rear base for Taleban guerrillas fighting NATO troops in Afghanistan.
In July, Pakistan’s Army redeployed troops at key checkpoints in the region, sparking fresh hostilities. Security forces have since suffered more than 250 casualties, many of them in suicide bombings, and more than 230 soldiers have been kidnapped. The escalating clashes have sparked intense debate in Pakistan on whether military action can curb Islamic extremism or only serves to enflame it.
