ISLAMABAD, 2 October 2006 — Suspected militants fired rockets at a military base in a tribal region in northwestern Pakistan early yesterday, but no one was hurt, officials said.
Three rockets fired in the pre-dawn attack slammed into a field inside the base in Wana, the main town in South Waziristan tribal region, a government official and an area intelligence agent said. Troops retaliated with small weapons fire in the direction from which the rockets were launched.
Wana Scouts, a wing of the Frontier Corps, found the mutilated body of an Uzbek man in the morning. Sources told Arab News the body was that of the son of Jaafar Assad, a notorious Uzbek commander, who is wanted by the army and who is said to be hiding in the region.
The sprawling base in Wana is home to thousands of army and paramilitary troops, and also houses offices of civilian government security officials in the area.
Meanwhile, police arrested nine Afghan Taleban, six of whom are suspected fighters, at a private hospital in Quetta yesterday, an official said. The six men arrived at the privately-run Al-Khidmat hospital in Quetta about two days ago with bullet wounds and were accompanied by three others who came to help them while they were being treated, said Chaudhry Mohammed Yaqoob, chief of police in Balochistan. Yaqoob said police raided the hospital after receiving information that the Taleban fighters were there. All nine have been transferred to a government hospital where they are in police custody, he said. “(The six) have been hit by bullets. In initial interrogation they said they were wounded while fighting,” Yaqoob said, adding that police could not get information immediately on where in Afghanistan the militants were wounded.
Oil Tanker Set Ablaze
A bomb blast set an oil tanker ablaze at a Pakistani border crossing, slightly injuring the driver as he attempted to deliver fuel for US forces in Afghanistan, a security official said yesterday. The explosion ripped through the truck while it was parked at the Pakistani border town of Chaman, the official said.
