ISLAMABAD, 12 June 2004 — Pakistani troops rained bombs and shells on hideouts of suspected foreign militants in a remote tribal region near Afghanistan yesterday as a rebel tribesman threatened to take his fight to Pakistan’s big cities if the offensive is not called off immediately.
Thousands of Pakistani troops backed by Cobra helicopter gunships targeted a camp and two hideouts near Shakai Valley in South Waziristan, military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said, killing at least five more militants and raising the death toll from three days of clashes to 58.
“We have retrieved five bodies of militants. Others are lying on the ground,” Sultan told a news conference at army headquarters in Rawalpindi.
Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat told the federal Parliament that a new operation had been launched and would last “until objectives are met,” state television reported.
Sultan said the security forces had targeted three sites including a training center, two Al-Qaeda safe houses and a compound which Al-Qaeda financer Abdel Hadi Al-Iraqi had been visiting.
“At this moment we have information that there are about eight to 10 fighters in the compound... visited by Al-Iraqi. The house is on a mountain top with a nullah (rain water channel) from where they can have a covered passage to come and get out,” he said.
Sultan said the second target was a set of houses and compounds which Al-Qaeda foreign fighters used as a transit point. “They (Al-Qaeda) come and stay here.”
“Another house is a training area. There is a firing range and other training facilities where they (Al-Qaeda) were training militants for terrorist activities. At this moment there are about 20 to 30 foreign fighters present in the area.”
The training camp lies on the outskirts of Shakai, near the district capital Wana less than 30 km from the border, where seven weeks ago army commanders and tribal elders hugged each other as they announced a truce and amnesty deal.
In an interview with the Pashto service of the BBC, Nek Muhammad, who is wanted by the government for sheltering Taleban and Al-Qaeda fighters, said he would make Islamabad, Lahore and Peshawar target of his attacks if the government did not stop the assault.
Nek has claimed responsibility for attacking federal troops on Wednesday that started the clashes.
The government has been silent on military casualties.
Government officials have not contradicted media reports that between 10 and 15 soldiers have been killed since Wednesday.
“This has just happened in Wana,” Nek warned in his BBC interview. “This will happen in Karachi, too. We have a major plan, and this will also happen in Islamabad and Peshawar in the next two days.”
An amnesty was offered after the army wound down its largest-ever offensive against the militants in late March and resorted to negotiations to convince the fighters to lay down arms and register with the authorities.
The military said that its offer of amnesty, made in the April 24 Shakai Agreement, had been abused by foreigners among the fighters.
