The words of Secretary of State Colin L. Powell are matched by dees on grounds, the alliances sewn by Bush are working, helping make world a safer place....
Army ’copters hunt for Taliban in Bannu, Kohat
PESHAWAR: Military helicopters circled mountainous terrain, bordering Afghanistan, on Friday in an operation, aimed at keeping out Taliban militants, a senior security source said.
Residents saw about 15 helicopters flying in a 40-kilometre stretch between Bannu and the nearby Kohat airbase. The army has also commandeered the disused the Bannu airstrip, where about 10 military helicopters have appeared, and troops have set up a security cordon in a four-kilometre radius.
"No civilian is allowed near the airport," a local resident told AFP. Unusual military activity has continued in Bannu since late on Wednesday, raising speculation that a major operation against Taliban or al-Qaeda remnants is under way. Security sources said that the exercise was aimed at securing the area, which adjoins Pakistan’s semiautonomous regions of North and South Waziristan, opposite the Afghan provinces of Paktika and Khost.
"The exercise is aimed at pre-empting any intrusion of Taliban into the Pakistani territory," a senior security source told AFP. "It is part of a routine military exercise and we do not share information about such exercises with the media," military spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan told AFP. "We can conduct such exercises anywhere, in deserts and mountains, in any part of the country." |
