Seven militants killed in Pakistan raid

NAGAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – At least seven Islamist
militants were killed in an overnight air raid by the Pakistan
army on their hideout near the Afghan border, intelligence
officials said on Thursday.

Cobra helicopter gunships attacked a compound in Nagar, six
km (four miles) south of Miranshah, the main town of the
restive North Waziristan region, after the army received
information about the presence of foreign fighters there,
military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said.

“At least seven militants have been killed,” a senior
intelligence official told Reuters, adding that five of them
were buried immediately after the attack and were believed to
be foreigners.

He said one of the slain foreigners was identified as Abdur
Rehman alias Abu Mohajir, who was supplying weapons to local
militants.

Wali Mohammad Khan, a commander of local militants in
Nagar, however, denied that any foreigners were hiding in the
compound or were killed in the attack.

“They were all local tribesmen and the five bodies were
immediately buried because these were badly mutilated,” he told
Reuters.

The funeral of two others killed in the attack would be
held later in the day, he added.

The intelligence official, who was speaking on condition of
anonymity, said the attack was carried out on the basis of
information gleaned from militants detained last month.

Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt has been infested
with al Qaeda remnants and Taliban who fled Afghanistan after
U.S.-led forces toppled the Taliban regime in 2001.

A military campaign to rid the tribal areas of al Qaeda
switched to North Waziristan from South Waziristan last year,
and there have been a series of fierce clashes in the past
month.

President Pervez Musharraf, a key ally in the U.S.-led war
on terrorism, last month warned foreign militants hiding in the
tribal region to leave Pakistan or face annihilation.