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US-led forces kill 24 militants on Pakistan border

Posted on: Friday, 15 July 2005, 07:23 CDT

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces killed 24 suspected Islamist militants on the Pakistan side of the Afghan border, Pakistan's military spokesman said on Friday.

The fighters, believed to belong to pro-Taliban and al Qaeda forces, were killed crossing into Pakistan late on Thursday near Lowara Mandi, a border village in the North Waziristan tribal region, Major-General Shaukat Sultan said.

"Apparently these people were trying to escape into Pakistani territory when they were hit by coalition forces. Their bodies are, of course, with the Pakistani authorities," Sultan told Reuters.

"They are foreigners and suspected Taliban. They could be Afghans and people of central Asian origin," he added.

Paramilitary sources in North Waziristan said the militants had fired missiles at a base for U.S.-led and Afghan forces some three km (two miles) across the border.

"The coalition forces returned fire using rockets and heavy weapons," a paramilitary official told Reuters.

A witness said he saw U.S. helicopters engaged in the attack, while Geo television said the fighters were killed by a missile.

Sultan said the U.S. side had informed their Pakistani counterparts before opening fire on the fleeing militants, but there would still be a check to see whether there had been any violation of Pakistani territory or airspace.

Pakistan has bridled in the past at U.S. forces' sorties across the border in the area around Lowara Mandi.

A U.S. military spokesman in Afghanistan said he had no information about the incident.

Tension has been building for months in North Waziristan since the Pakistan Army completed a series of offensives to dislodge al Qaeda bases in neighboring South Waziristan.

On Thursday, a Pakistani general warned tribes in North Waziristan of an imminent offensive to flush out foreign militants, including al Qaeda fighters.

At a meeting with tribal elders, Major-General Akram Sahi, commander of Pakistani troops in North Waziristan, gave the tribesmen 24 hours to hand over suspected militants.

Lieutenant General David Barno, head of the U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan, said last April that Pakistan was planning a big offensive in North Waziristan. His comments prompted irritated retorts from Pakistan's military.

Pakistan risked the wrath of the volatile Pashtun tribes when it first sent the army into their homelands in late 2003 to hunt suspected al Qaeda and Taliban militants.

Source: REUTERS

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