Islamabad - At least 14 military and paramilitary troops
were killed while 18 Taliban fighters died on Sunday in clashes and
air raids in Pakistan's lawless tribal district bordering
Afghanistan, officials said.
Three civilians also died in the clashes between the rebels and
government forces.
Dozens of fighters ambushed an army convoy near the Datta Khel
area of North Waziristan with rocket fire, destroying several
vehicles.
An army official at the military's Inter Services Public Relations
Department confirmed that 12 soldiers were killed and 10 were injured
in the Sunday afternoon ambush.
'Following the attacks, army helicopters targeted the fleeing
insurgents, killing 10 of them,' he added.
However, a local intelligence official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity said 20 soldiers died and 30 were injured in the terrorist
attack. 'The dead and wounded have been evacuated to Peshawar by
helicopters.'
A Taliban spokesman, Ahmadullah Ahmadi, accepted responsibility
for the raid in a phone call to the German press Agency dpa. 'We will
carry out more such actions unless the American drone attacks and
aggression from Pakistani military is not stopped,' Ahmadi said.
The attack is the deadliest in North Waziristan since the
government started aerial raids in adjoining South Waziristan three
weeks ago to soften up targets before launching an all-out offensive
there against Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud.
A string of deadly suicide attacks by Mehsud's men in recent
months compelled the government to announce a decisive onslaught
against the warlord, who is known for playing host to al-Qaeda
fighters in his stronghold of South Waziristan.
Jet fighters pounded militant positions in the district's Kani
Karam, Laddah and Makeen areas of South Waziristan early on Sunday
and destroyed six Taliban hideouts.
'At least eight militants were killed and a dozen more were
wounded,' a second intelligence official said on condition of
anonymity.
Three people, including a woman, also died when their house was
struck in Makeen.
The airstrikes came hours after Islamist insurgents mounted a
rocket attack on two military camps near Wana, the main town of South
Waziristan. Two paramilitary soldiers were killed and three others
wounded, the official said.
However, the military confirmed only one casualty.
Fighting intensified in the remote tribal region as the
authorities announced that the military was close to wrapping up its
onslaught against the Taliban in the north-western Swat valley and
its nearby districts, and will soon turn its focus to Mehsud's
network.
More than 1,600 Taliban militants have been reported killed in the
Swat operation since late April. But the death toll could not be
verified independently because of restrictions on media from both the
military and the Taliban.
Islamabad's unrelenting campaign against the militants has wide
support at home and has also drawn appreciation from Western
countries, including the United States, which heavily relies on the
Pakistani counterinsurgency drive to win its war in Afghanistan.
The United States has already announced a five-million-dollar
bounty on the head of Mehsud, describing him as 'a key al-Qaeda
facilitator.'
The Taliban's retreat from the Swat region to adjoining tribal
belt has fuelled sectarian clashes in at least one of the seven
lawless districts.
At least 33 people were killed and 65 more were wounded as
fighting raged Friday and continued through Saturday in Kurram, which
adjoins the al-Qaeda and Taliban hotbed of North Waziristan region,
the English-language Dawn newspaper reported on Sunday.
The clashes broke between Sunni and Shiites Muslims last week and
had left around 89 people dead and 175 injured.
Shiite tribesmen, who are in the majority in Kurram, are calling
for raising local militias, or Lashkars, to block the entry of mostly
Sunni militants. They have been challenging the Taliban movement for
the last two years.
'We have had over 700 young people martyred but have not allowed
these militants to secure a toehold in Upper Kurram,' tribal leader
Haji Rauf was quoted by Dawn as saying. 'Now the influx of Taliban
from Swat, Dir and other areas is worsening the situation.'
Rauf said the government should launch a similar military
operation in Kurram, adding that the tribesmen would 'fight alongside
our soldiers.'
Separately, three Shiite Muslims and two Sunnis were killed in an
ongoing wave of targeted sectarian killings in the north-western town
of Dera Ismail Khan near South Waziristan, said Malik Ramzan, a
spokesman for the local police chief.
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