MIRANSHAH, 21 April 2006 — Militants ambushed a convoy of Pakistani troops yesterday, killing seven and wounding 22 in the deadliest attack for months in a restive tribal region bordering Afghanistan, officials said.
The attack came as Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States resolved to strengthen border security arrangements at 16th meeting of the Tripartite Commission meeting.
Separately, a suspected foreign insurgent and another paramilitary soldier died in a gunbattle at a checkpoint in the rugged and largely lawless area, they said.
In Rawalpindi at the 16th Tripartite Joint Commission meeting it was agreed to strengthen border security when the commanders of the three countries met.
Afghanistan’s Chief of General Staff Gen. Bismillah Khan, the Vice Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Army Gen. Ahsan Saleem Hayat and US Commander in Afghanistan Gen. Karl Eikenberry deliberated for more than 10 hours to address the issue in more cohesive manner.
The three countries agreed to hold joint military exercises. The first joint military exercise is to be known as “Inspired Gambit 06” and will be held next month.
The deaths in Miranshah came amid increasingly intensive efforts by Pakistan to flush out Al-Qaeda and Taleban insurgents and their supporters and restore control in the region.
The soldiers who died in the ambush had been securing the convoy’s route in Sarobi village, 20 kilometers (10 miles) north of Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan, chief military spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan said.
“This happened when security forces were moving and mounting routine security positions. The attackers used nearby heights and attacked the security forces,” Sultan said.
Helicopter gunships and soldiers hunted the rebels after the attack, killing up to six militants. The latter’s bodies were removed by their comrades, a security official said on condition of anonymity.
Sultan said troops were responding to the attack and had secured the area but did not confirm the militant death toll.
Meanwhile a shootout erupted yesterday when a suspected foreign militant refused to get out of a car at a checkpoint near Khar, the main town in Bajaur, another of Pakistan’s seven tribal regions, Sultan said.
“He started firing at the paramilitary forces. One was killed and the suspect was also killed,” he said. The suspect’s body was undergoing tests to establish his identity.
Also, five paramilitary soldiers were injured late on Wednesday when a remote-controlled roadside bomb struck their vehicle in Spinwah village, 40 kilometers northeast of Miranshah, a security official said.
Rockets were also fired at security forces in the nearby border town of Mirali early yesterday but caused no casualties.
Pakistan says it has deployed 80,000 troops in its lawless tribal belt to hunt militants who sneaked across the frontier after Afghanistan’s hard-line Taleban regime was toppled by US-led forces in late 2001.
Both North Waziristan and neighboring South Waziristan have seen major clashes over the past two and a half years. Fierce battles flared again last month, leaving around 250 insurgents and five soldiers dead, the military said.
In another development militants beheaded a tribesman in Mirali village for spying for the United States.
Waseeullah a resident of Sira Tala village was abducted and beheaded. His mutilated remains found in a ditch. Beheading of those tribesmen who are not supportive of militants is altogether a new phenomenon surfacing in Waziristan’s tribal traditions.
Last week officials said a top Al-Qaeda operative indicted for the 1998 US Embassy bombings in Africa was believed to have died in a Pakistani military strike in North Waziristan.
Egyptian-born explosives expert Abdul Rahman Al-Muhajir — who carries a five-million-dollar US bounty on his head and is also known as Muhsin Musa Matwalli Atwah — is thought to have been killed along with seven other militants.
