Pakistan kill scores of Taliban in new combat zones

Thursday, June 11, 2009 at 5:10 AM Posted by Beijing News


The Pakistani army unleashed helicopter gunships and artillery to kill scores of Taliban fighters on Thursday after opening a second front against militants in area bordering their stronghold in the Waziristan tribal region.

Already in the final stages of an operation to clear Islamist fighters from the Swat valley, far to the northwest and closer to Islamabad, the military went on the offensive on Tuesday in Bannu district after up to 800 militants infiltrated from Waziristan.

U.S. officials, who have been worried that the Taliban could drive nuclear-armed Pakistan into chaos, have welcomed the offensive in Swat.

There has been speculation that once that was over the focus would switch to Waziristan, long regarded as a hub of Taliban and al Qaeda activity.

A military statement said 66 militants had been killed in fighting mostly in Bannu and South Waziristan, but also Swat, during the last 24 hours.

In Bannu alone, more than 130 militants have been killed since the army swung into action two days ago, according to military officers and a senior civilian official in the area. Independent casualty estimates are unavailable.

"The operation is going on very well. Helicopter gunships, artillery, everything is being used," Kamran Zeb, the top administrator in Bannu, told Reuters.

In South Waziristan, the stronghold of Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, around 400 militants attacked two forts in Jandola and Siplatoi. They killed three soldiers but lost 22 of their own men, the military statement said.

Standing at the gateway to Waziristan, Bannu is 150 km 90 miles southwest of Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, where a suicide truck bomb attack on a luxury hotel killed at least nine people on Tuesday.

Richard Holbrooke, the U.S. special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said he saw a dramatic shift in the Pakistani government's attitude because of public outrage over the Taliban's actions, including the attack on the hotel.

"What I saw in Pakistan on this trip was a slow emergence of a consensus behind the government's actions," Holbrooke said in Washington on Wednesday, reporting back on his trip last week.

AID CRUNCH

Pakistan's decision to opt for military action in Swat has been helped by a shift in public opinion. That support might ebb if the welfare of some 2.5 million people displaced by the conflict in the northwest is mishandled.

Nine aid agencies said on Thursday in London they would be forced to stop or cut back supplies of aid unless a funding crisis was resolved.

The United Nations has appealed for $543 million, but has received only $138 million so far.

The United Nations is heavily involved in relief efforts, and five U.N. workers, including two foreigners, were among those killed in the suicide attack on Peshawar's Pearl Continental hotel.

HEAVY BOMBING

Additional reporting by Hasan Mehmood, Alamgir Bitani, and Zeeshan Haider; writing by Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by Jeremy Laurence



Janeiro. REUTERS/Alex Carvalho

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