• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Pakistan kill 17 militants near Afghan border

Posted on: Sunday, 17 July 2005, 02:51 CDT

By Haji Mujtaba

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least 17 people, including suspected foreign militants and a Pakistani soldier, were killed on Sunday in a clash in a tribal region near the Afghan border, military officials said.

The clash took place after troops surrounded the suspects in two houses near Miranshah, the main town of the North Waziristan tribal region.

Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said the suspected militants opened fire on troops after they refused to accept an appeal from the tribal elders to give in.

"They also threw hand grenades at the troops," he told Reuters.

"We returned the fire and as a result 17 people from the militant' side were killed," Sultan said.

He said a soldier was also killed in the clash.

Residents of Miranshah, around 300 km (180 miles) southwest of the Pakistani capital Islamabad, said the troops had cordoned off the area after the clash.

"I have seen some body limbs and blood scattered on earth," a Reuters reporter at the scene said.

The North Waziristan region borders with Afghanistan's Paktika province where four U.S. soldiers were wounded on Saturday when their vehicle was hit a home-made bomb, U.S. military there said.

TENSION BUILDING

The Waziristan incident occurred two days after U.S. forces based in Afghanistan killed 24 suspected al Qaeda militants and their Taliban allies inside Pakistan in the same region.

Tension has been building for months in North Waziristan since the army completed a string of offensives against al Qaeda militants in neighboring South Waziristan.

Major-General Akram Sahi, military commander in North Waziristan, this week ordered tribesmen to hand over foreign militants hiding in the region or face an imminent offensive.

A senior U.S. administration official in Washington on Thursday said the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan needed to squeeze insurgents along the rugged border where al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden might be hiding.

Pakistan's tribal belt is overwhelmingly Pashtun and most people are deeply conservative Muslims, sharing common religious and ethnic roots with Taliban fighters trying to oust U.S.-led forces from Afghanistan.

On Saturday, thousands of Pakistani tribesmen shouting anti-U.S. slogans attended funerals for three of 24 suspected militants killed on Thursday night.

U.S. and Afghan officials often complain that the militants launch attacks inside Afghanistan from the safety of Pakistan's tribal region.

Pakistan says it had deployed thousands of troops at its long, porous border with Afghanistan and is doing all it can to stem militant activity.

Pakistan has arrested hundreds of al Qaeda and other Islamic militants since throwing its lot behind the U.S.-led war on terrorism. It has handed many of them over to the United States.

(Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider)

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category