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| Sunday, 13 June 2004 |
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Pakistani warplanes go after al Qaeda quarry WANA, Pakistan, June 12 (Reuters) Pakistani warplanes and helicopter gunships roared over hideouts of al Qaeda-linked militants on Saturday in barren mountains bordering Afghanistan where 53 people have been killed in four days of fighting. A bomb exploded in Dera Ismail Khan town, 130 km (80 miles) east of the heart of the battles between the army and militants around Wana, killing one man and wounded four at a house of a senior official in Pakistan's paramilitary border force. After fighting had raged through the night, the dawn rose with jets screaming through the skies and helicopters hovering above the Shakai area of South Waziristan, some 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Islamabad, residents said. Up to 600 foreign militants, including Arabs, Chechens and Uzbeks linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, have been hiding out in Pakistan's lawless tribal areas, protected by Pakistani tribesmen. The fighting had spread into neighbouring North Waziristan agency where militants fired rockets at paramilitary checkposts during the night and soldiers returned fire, residents said. "I woke up to the roar of jets. Then I saw three helicopters flying in the direction of Shakai," said on resident. "There was a lot of firing like a guerrilla battle going on all night," said a resident of Shakai. In Miranshah, the capital of North Waziristan agency, one checkpost outside the town was damaged but no casualties were reported, officials said. The army killed 35 militants and lost 15 of its men in fighting on Wednesday and Thursday, military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan said on Friday. Three civilians have also been reported killed. While the gunships have been used in earlier operations in the tribal areas that have failed to net any senior al Qaeda or militant leaders, air force jets were sent in for the first time this week to bomb houses where militants had been spotted. Pakistani forces had destroyed the house of a tribesman where one unidentified al Qaeda member had taken refuge in the past, Sultan said. They had also targeted a militant training camp and an al Qaeda safe house. The government suspected a link between the fighting and an attempt to kill the military commander in the southern port city of Karachi on Thursday, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said on Friday. The assassination attempt could have been retaliation by militants for the latest attack on their tribal redoubts. |
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