Pakistan says 60 killed in strikes on Taliban

A Pakistani police commando rushes to the site of an explosion Wednesday in Karachi in which a bomb had been rigged to a motorcycle and exploded outside a paramilitary office.
A Pakistani police commando rushes to the site of an explosion Wednesday in Karachi in which a bomb had been rigged to a motorcycle and exploded outside a paramilitary office.

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistani warplanes and helicopters pounded militant hideouts near the Afghan border on Wednesday, killing 60 fighters, while a shootout between security forces and militants left four soldiers dead, the army said.

The airstrikes mainly targeted Mir Ali, a town in the lawless tribal region of North Waziristan, the army said in a statement. Hours later, "an encounter between security forces and terrorists took place" in Mir Ali, leaving 11 insurgents and four soldiers dead, the military said in a separate statement.

Earlier, the military said, "60 hard-core terrorists" including "important commanders and foreigners" were killed in the strikes and another 30 were wounded.

One resident, who identified himself as Saeedullah Khan, said the army also had been firing artillery rounds since the early morning.

"We heard big bangs," he said. "I saw some houses flattened."

Another resident, Inam Ullah, said the airstrikes destroyed several homes and nearby shops in Mir Ali's bazaar, causing civilian casualties.

The claims by the army and residents could not be independently verified. The restive tribal area is off-limits to foreign journalists.

A spokesman for Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, who leads hundreds of fighters but has signed a nonaggression treaty with the Pakistani government, condemned the airstrikes and said his group had convened a meeting to consider withdrawing from the pact.

Ahmadullah Ahmadi said the group "cannot remain silent over bombardment on people."

The Pakistani Taliban are a loose network of militant groups, some of which are waging a war aimed at overthrowing the government and establishing their own harsh version of an Islamic state. Other militants use lawless regions of Pakistan as a base for attacking U.S.-led international forces and Afghan troops across the border.

The army said an investigation of recent attacks targeting civilians and security forces had led it to the militant hideouts.

Waziristan is part of Pakistan's tribal region, which is home to Taliban and al-Qaida-linked foreign militants who have killed thousands of people.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has been pursuing a policy of negotiation with the Pakistani Taliban to end the violence, but those efforts have not yet yielded any results.

Also on Wednesday, a bomb rigged to a motorcycle exploded outside an office belonging to Pakistani paramilitary forces in the southern city of Karachi, wounding seven civilians, police official Javed Odho said.

Afghanistan attacks

Across the border in Afghanistan on Wednesday, Taliban fighters launched attacks in several Afghan provinces, killing at least 10 policemen and three civilians, officials said. Villagers also found the bodies of eight policemen who were abducted by militants two weeks ago.

Insurgents ambushed several police checkpoints in the northeastern Badakhshan province, prompting gunbattles that left six policemen dead in the Yamgan district, provincial Police Chief Gen. Fazeluddin Ayar said. The fighting started late Tuesday and lasted into Wednesday.

Reinforcements were sent to the site, but the police were forced to pull back and were fighting the Taliban forces from surrounding mountains as army helicopters flew overhead, Ayar said. Five insurgents also were killed, and three policemen were wounded, he added.

Militants disguised as women in all-encompassing burqas also fired machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades at a district base in the Alingar area of Laghman province, killing four policemen, provincial government spokesman Sarhadi Zwak said. He said the Taliban also suffered casualties but provided no details.

In a statement to the media, the Taliban claimed responsibility for both attacks.

In other violence Wednesday, a suicide bomber walked into a district building in Hasarak in the eastern Nangarhar province and blew himself up, killing two civilians and wounding seven other people, including a senior district official, said Ahmad Zia Abdulzai, the spokesman for the provincial governor.

A woman was killed and eight civilians wounded when a bomb hidden in a bag exploded at a bazaar in the Pashtun Kot district of the northern Faryab province, police spokesman Sayed Massoud Yaqoubi said.

And a sticky bomb attached to a bus wounded a woman in Bagram district in Parwan province, said Police Chief Massom Farzahee.

In southern Afghanistan, residents found the bodies of eight police officers who had been kidnapped almost two weeks ago by Taliban insurgents.

Mohammad Jan Rassoulyar, the deputy governor in Zabul province, said Wednesday that the residents found the bodies the day before and reported them to police.

The policemen -- seven local and one from the national force -- were snatched by militants after an attack on their convoy two weeks ago from the same province, Rassoulyar said. The bodies were surrounded by explosives.

Information for this article was contributed by Ishtiaq Mahsud, Adil Jawad, Rahim Faiez and Amir Shah of The Associated Press.

A Section on 05/22/2014

Upcoming Events