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

Pakistan says kills 17 militants near Afghan border

Posted on: Sunday, 17 July 2005, 07:24 CDT

By Haji Mujtaba

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) - At least 17 suspected foreign militants, along with women and children, were killed in a clash with Pakistani security forces on Sunday near the Afghan border, the Pakistan military said.

Troops surrounded the suspects before dawn in two houses near Miranshah, the main town of the North Waziristan tribal region.

Military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said the militants opened fire after refusing an appeal from tribal elders to surrender, and soldiers returned fire.

A military statement said the militants used women as shields as they tried to flee, while some women took part in the fighting.

"The militants and women fired back and lobbed grenades that resulted in shahadat (martyrdom) of one soldier," the statement said.

It was not immediately clear how many women or children were involved.

Several of the militants were believed to be from central Asia. Four Kazakhstan passports were recovered.

The military statement said arms and ammunition, including detonators, explosive material, switches, circuit diagrams and other material, were found in the hideouts.

AREA CORDONED OFF

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

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

Two days earlier, U.S. forces based in Afghanistan killed 24 suspected al Qaeda militants and their Taliban allies on the Pakistan side of the border in North Waziristan. The militants had earlier fired on an Afghan army post killing one soldier.

On Thursday, the Afghan army and U.S.-led forces killed 20 Taliban insurgents and their allies on the Afghan side of the border in Khost province.

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

Pakistan has deployed thousands of troops along its long, porous frontier with Afghanistan, but U.S. and Afghan officials complain the insurgents are coming from across the border.

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, Pakistan's military commander in North Waziristan, this week ordered tribesmen to hand over foreign militants or face an imminent offensive.

Pakistan's tribal belt is overwhelmingly Pashtun, as are the Taliban fighters trying to oust U.S.-led forces from Afghanistan.

(Additional reporting by Zeeshan Haider)

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category