MIRANSHAH, Pakistan, 20 August 2007 — Pakistan Army helicopter gunships strafed and bombed suspected militant hideouts in a restive tribal region in the country’s northwest yesterday, killing 15 militants, an official said.
The air raids were carried out after militants launched attacks and engaged in intense gunbattles with security forces late Saturday in North Waziristan, a tribal region on the border with Afghanistan, army spokesman Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said.
Two walled compounds were hit during the military operation near Mir Ali, a town in North Waziristan, in which 15 foreign militants, mostly Uzbeks, were killed, Arshad said.
Five civilians — two women, two children and a man — died when their home was bombed in Hurmaz, a village near Mir Ali, an intelligence official in Miranshah, North Waziristan’s main town, said. Arshad said that he had no confirmation of any civilian casualties.
However, he said there were unconfirmed reports that “two, three women” living in the militant compounds may have been killed in the operation.
Violence has increased in North Waziristan, with militants launching almost daily attacks on security forces after they pulled out of a peace deal with the government in July.
They accused authorities of redeploying troops to security posts that had been vacated under terms of the agreement.
A militant leader also announced his intention to withdraw from a similar peace deal in South Waziristan, another tribal area adjacent to North Waziristan, after accusing authorities of launching military raids there.
“The government violated the agreement, carried out air strikes and moved troops into our area,” the Dawn newspaper quoted Zulfiqar Mehsud, a purported spokesman for militant leader Baitullah Mehsud, as saying. Pakistan — a close ally of the US in its war against terrorism — has deployed some 90,000 troops to its border regions along Afghanistan to track down militants.
Pakistan has faced increased US pressure to do more to stop militants from crossing into Afghanistan, amid concern that Al-Qaeda may be regrouping in Pakistan’s tribal regions. Late Saturday, suspected militants attacked a town in Bajour, another tribal area north of South and North Waziristan, killing one civilian man.
Attackers fired assault rifles at a residential neighborhood in Inayat Kalay, a market town in Bajour, drawing retaliatory fire from armed residents and security forces, security official Tor Khan said.
One area resident was killed in an ensuing one-hour gunbattle before the militants retreated, Khan said.
A spurt in violence, mainly in northwestern region of Pakistan, has killed about 425 people since early July, including troops, police, militants and civilians, according to an Associated Press tally based on reports by security and intelligence officials.
