Pakistan army kills 20 Taliban

Posted by Mc Parry on June 11th, 2009 No Comments Printer-Friendly

PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistan’s security forces have killed at least 20 suspected militants as they continue to pound Taliban positions near a lawless northwest tribal belt, officials said.

Pakistani army troops patrol on a road during curfew in Bannu, Pakistan(AP)

The military this week launched operations in Bannu district on the fringes of semi-autonomous North and South Waziristan, where Washington alleges Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels are hiding out plotting attacks on the West.

“According to my information, 20 militants were killed and an unknown number of them were injured in a night-long offensive against militants in Jani Khel area,” Syed Munir Khan, a local police official in Bannu, told AFP.

He said the new fatalities took the death toll from the Bannu operation to 60, after about 40 rebels were reported killed on Tuesday and Wednesday.

A military official in the northwest’s main city of Peshawar confirmed that about 20 suspected militants were killed overnight, adding: “Operations are under way, we are targeting their dens and hideouts.”

The military has not officially confirmed any death tolls in Bannu, saying only in a statement Wednesday that they “engaged suspected terrorist locations” near the town of Jani Khel, which they said was a militant staging post.

On the border area of South Waziristan and Tank district, meanwhile, three government paramilitary soldiers were killed in clashes with militants in Jandola and Saplatoai tribal areas, a security official said.

He said insurgents suffered “heavy casualties” but gave no toll.

Troops are already locked in a more than six-week battle against Islamist extremists in three separate northwestern districts around Swat valley.
The military says it has killed more than 1,380 militants since the assault began on April 26, although the figures are impossible to verify.

Pakistan’s lawless tribal zones bordering Afghanistan are a known bolthole for hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda rebels who fled across the border to escape the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001. (AFP)