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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Carragher who wrote (85897)	11/13/2004 7:27:08 AM
From: Bris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793955

Pakistan army kills 40 militants near Afghanistan By ASSOCIATED PRESS Advertisement WANA, Pakistan Pakistan's army, backed by artillery and helicopter gunships, has demolished several "terrorist hideouts" and killed up to 40 militants in a major operation - but failed to capture a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner accused of targeting security forces in a tense tribal region, officials said Saturday. The troops took control of some militant strongholds and seized a weapons cache during the assault, launched this week in South Waziristan to capture "foreign miscreants" and Pakistani militant leader Abdullah Mehsud, said the army's field commander, Maj. Gen. Niaz Khatak. "Our forces this week killed an estimated 30 to 40 militants in the areas of Mehsud," Khatak told a group of foreign journalists flown by helicopter from Rawalpindi - a garrison city near the capital, Islamabad - to this tense tribal region. However, he said that they had so far recovered only six militants' bodies, and that the operation was continuing in the some areas where Mehsud and his men are believed to be on the run. He said thousands of soldiers are taking part in the operation. Islamabad is a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, and officials say hundreds of Central Asian, Afghan and Arab militants are in hiding in South Waziristan - also a possible hiding place of Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri. Pakistan has about 70,000 troops along the Afghan border, and has launched a series of bloody military operations this year that have left scores of soldiers, militants and civilians dead. On Friday, a roadside bomb exploded near an army convoy in South Waziristan's main town, Wana, wounding at least four soldiers, said an intelligence official who did not want to be identified. Wana residents said a shootout erupted shortly after the blast, which left a civilian dead and two others wounded. Pakistan army's spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan confirmed the explosion, but said he had no other details. Mehsud is accused of masterminding the kidnapping last month of two Chinese engineers in the tribal region near Afghanistan, where the engineers had been building a dam. One of the Chinese men was killed and the other was rescued alive when commandos raided a home in South Waziristan. All five hostage-takers were also killed. Since then, troops have been looking for Mehsud, 28, who was freed in March after about two years' detention at the US prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. After returning to Pakistan, Mehsud emerged as a rebel leader, opposing Pakistan's army as it hunts foreign militants and their supporters in the country's semiautonomous tribal regions. On Friday, Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussain, the top commander in northwestern Pakistan, told reporters that about 2,000 soldiers were involved in the operation, backed by artillery and helicopter gunships. He vowed to continue the operation until the militants are killed or captured. He said the troops this week searched Mehsud's South Waziristan home but found no one. He offered amnesty to Mehsud and his men if they agreed to respect the country's laws. Meanwhile, three local tribal elders wanted for sheltering foreign militants this week accepted a government amnesty, signing an accord that they would not maintain such ties in the future. The three men are associates of renegade tribesman Nek Mohammed, killed in his South Waziristan hideout by a missile in June, after he allegedly violated an earlier accord.