ISLAMABAD: Pakistani troops yesterday killed up to 30 Taleban militants in fresh clashes with extremists along the Afghan border, a security official said.
Helicopter gunships and artillery fire pounded militants' positions in the Inayat Kaley, Rashkai, and Loi Sum areas of Bajaur district, a known sanctuary of Taleban and Al-Qaeda militants launching cross-border raids on international forces in Afghanistan.
The army is facing resistance but during the latest clashes over 85 militants have been killed and some soldiers including one army major were also killed.
Sources at the Inter-Services Public Relations Directorate told Arab News yesterday, "so far security forces have eliminated 85 militants and they are continuing in demolishing hide-outs of suspected Al-Qaeda elements. The militants were killed in the operation at Loisam, Sangkhata, Shankai areas of Bajaur Agency, the sources said.
"Between 25 and 30 miscreants have died and numerous were injured in the operation during which several militants' hide-outs were destroyed," said a local security official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Army spokesman Maj. Murad Khan confirmed that the militant's positions were targeted but their losses had yet to be ascertained. "Intense exchanges of fire took place throughout the day between security forces and miscreants, but security forces consolidated their hold over the areas during the operation," he said.
"Miscreants' locations were engaged using air, artillery and combat aviation inflicting heavy casualties on them," Murad added.
He, however, did not say if there were any security force casualties. Thousands of troops launched a major offensive in the district to clear the area of the rebels who had surrounded the district headquarters Khar.
The army has intensified ground and air attacks in an effort to flush out Taleban and local militants from the Bajaur tribal region. "We killed 72 militants, while eight of our soldiers died in Bajaur since Wednesday," Murad told The Associated Press, adding the military was still targeting militant positions in various parts of Bajaur.
According to official figures around 700 militants had so far been killed while the death toll on the side of government forces has reached dozens.
But the conflict has also caused a large number of civilian casualties - seldom reported as few journalists remain in the area - and forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee to safer areas.
The fresh clashes came as Pakistan is under intensive pressure from Washington to carry out an all-out operation in the tribal areas. Complaining about Pakistan's inability to control militancy, the United States has recently increased missile strikes mostly carried out by drones in border areas, including the latest on Friday that killed 12 people in North Waziristan. This has strained Washington-Islamabad relations and stirred anger in Pakistan, which has vowed to defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity at "all costs."
There have been enraged calls to abandon alliance against terrorism and to use of force to stop US incursions, but Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Friday ruled out retaliatory action against the US saying the government would instead use negotiations to resolve the issue.
"We can take up the issue of these attacks at the diplomatic level but we cannot go to war," he told reporters.
"We will convince both the US and the UK to respect our sovereignty." Gilani said Pakistan was capable of dealing effectively with terrorists and militants on its soil.
