[NYTr] Pakistan fighting kills 250, civilians flee

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

AFP - Oct 9, 2007
http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/071009135924.6dnzqe6d.html

Pakistan fighting kills 250, civilians flee

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (AFP) - Pakistani jets pounded militant hideouts in
a troubled tribal region Tuesday, taking the death toll to 250 from
three of the heaviest days of fighting in the region since 2001.

The clashes have forced thousands to flee from Mir Ali, a town in
lawless North Waziristan district that President Pervez Musharraf has
previously pinpointed as a den of Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network.

Residents said dozens of people including women and children were
killed in the latest air strikes in the rugged region bordering
Afghanistan, but security officials insisted the dead were all Islamist
fighters.

The unrest puts extra pressure on military ruler Musharraf -- a key
ally in the US-led "war on terror" -- as he waits for the Supreme Court
to legitimise his victory in Saturday's presidential election.

Chief military spokesman Major General Waheed Arshad said at least 150
militants and 45 soldiers had been killed in battles that first erupted
on Sunday after pro-Taliban rebels ambushed an army convoy.

Another two troops died in a roadside bombing on Tuesday, a statement
said.

"There were militant hideouts in the area near Mir Ali, aircraft
targeted these hideouts on Tuesday but I don't have the number of
casualties from that," Arshad told AFP.

Security officials in the northwestern city of Peshawar said another 50
militants were killed in Tuesday's airstrikes and a similar number were
injured.

Residents, however, said around a dozen bombs dropped by two fighter
jets exploded in the main bazaar in Khedar Khel, a village near Mir
Ali, destroying several houses.

"Some 50 people including women and children have died in the bombing,"
resident Noor Mohammad, 45, told AFP by telephone.

"The number of injured is even more."

The use of warplanes against militants who fled into the region after
the fall of Afghanistan's Taliban regime six years ago is rare, with
the army usually relying on helicopter gunships.

Most of the 50,000 inhabitants of Mir Ali had fled after more than 50
houses were damaged and the army placed the town under virtual curfew,
residents said.

"Our homes have been damaged severely, most of the families have
migrated to relatives' homes in neighbouring towns," tribesman
Faridullah Khan said as military helicopters circled overhead.

Desperate locals used mosque loudspeakers to beg the military not to
fire at their homes, tribal elder Malik Iqbal Khan said.

Army spokesman Arshad said that tribal elders had called a council or
jirga involving tribesmen, militant representatives and the local
administration in a bid to halt the violence.

But the military indicated that it was in no mood to compromise.

"The army is fighting well-trained militants. There are linkages with
Afghanistan. Many of them are getting money and weapons from across the
border," Arshad said.

A Pakistani security official said the militants involved had the
"latest weaponry and lots of money" from across the porous border.

They were also "in contact with members of a hostile country in
Afghanistan" -- an apparent reference to Pakistan's long-term
nuclear-armed rival India, its neighbour on the eastern side, the
official added.

Pakistan has become increasingly convinced that India has a hand in a
wave of violence that erupted after Pakistani security forces besieged
and then raided the Al-Qaeda-linked Red Mosque in Islamabad in July.

Bin Laden has also urged militants to avenge the storming of the mosque
which killed about 100 people.

In the latest violence, 20 people were injured when a bomb exploded in
a music shop in Peshawar on Tuesday, police said.

The fighting in the last three days is some of the bloodiest since
Musharraf pushed thousands of troops into the tribal zone. About 90,000
troops are currently in the region.

Pro-Taliban militants are also holding more than 200 Pakistani soldiers
in nearby South Waziristan district since abducting them in late August.