PAKISTAN: GOVERNMENT TROOPS BOMB SUSPECTED "TERRORIST CAMP" KILLING AT LEAST FIFTY PEOPLE

Record ID: 347592

  • Title: PAKISTAN: GOVERNMENT TROOPS BOMB SUSPECTED "TERRORIST CAMP" KILLING AT LEAST FIFTY PEOPLE
  • Date: 10th September 2004
  • Summary: (W6) WANA, TRIBAL AREAS OF PAKISTAN, NEAR AFGHAN BORDER (RECENT) (REUTERS) 1. SLV TRIBAL AREAS; SLV MILITARY TRUCKS MOVING INTO WANA 0.16 (W6) RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN (SEPTEMBER 9, 2004) (REUTERS) 2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) SENIOR PAKISTANI MILITARY SPOKESMAN, MAJOR-GENERAL SHAUKAT SULTAN, SAYING: "As per the initial reports there are about
  • Embargoed: 25th September 2004 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: WANA, TRIBAL AREAS OF PAKISTAN, NEAR THE AFGHAN BORDER/ RAWALPINDI, PAKISTAN
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Reuters ID: LVAEQMYYEVHSIIG7L8HPUZZIE9NN
  • Story Text: Pakistan bombs what it says is a suspected
    "terrorist camp", killing at least 50.

    Pakistan jet fighters and helicopter gunships
    pounded what the military called a terrorist training camp
    near the Afghan border on Thursday (September 9, 2004).

    At least 50 people were killed. Reports are that most
    of the dead are foreign militants.

    Witnesses and a security official said troops clashed
    with tribesmen loyal to the militants into the evening
    following the morning attack near Dila Khula, 25 km (15 miles)
    northeast of Wana, the main town of the South
    Waziristan tribal region.

    Using language more commonly used these days by US and
    Israeli military forces a senior Pakistan military
    spokesman, Major General Shaukat Sultan, said security
    forces had launched a "precision strike" after receiving
    intelligence that militants were being trained there.

    "The security forces launched a precision strike this
    morning in an area which is about 25 kilometres north east
    of Wana in South Waziristan agency. We had the confirmed
    information about presence of foreign elements engaged in
    some training activity. As per the reports there were
    Uzbeks, Chechens and few Arabs present there. And the
    people trained from here, the terrorists trained from here,
    were involved in various terrorist acts in the country. The
    investigations into the recent terrorist acts in the
    country also pointed their fingers to the training camp. We
    were monitoring their activity and upon confirmation the
    security forces launched a precision strike. The operation
    lasted for about two hours and we have successfully
    destroyed this hideout," said Shaukat Sultan.

    But there have been local reports of heavy civilian
    casualties from the air assault. Sultan said most of those
    killed were foreigners and added that if any of the victims
    were locals then they must have been involved in militant
    activities.

    "As per initial reports there are about fifty casualties
    and most of them are foreigners," he said.

    But according to local witnesses, dozens of civilians
    also died in a subsequent raid after they gathered to
    survey the damage in the area located around 50 kilometres
    from the Afghan border.

    Villagers said around 40 members of Afghanistan's
    ousted Taliban militia and allied Islamic militants had
    gathered at the time of the attack, and many of the
    fighters were killed in air strikes.

    Residents estimated that up to 90 people had died,
    making it one of the bloodiest clashes in Pakistan's
    lawless tribal belt since the military launched a crackdown
    on al Qaeda-linked militants hiding there.

    Sultan said military action in the area would continue.

    "This particular strike operation is over but the
    military as well as the political activities in the area
    they are continuing and they will continue till the time we
    completely eliminate terrorism from this soil," he said.

    About 70,000 Pakistani troops have been deployed in
    tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

    The region of South Waziristan, 400 km southwest of the
    capital Islamabad, has been the scene of major military
    operations in recent months.

    Officials have said hundreds of al Qaeda-linked foreign
    militants, including Arabs, Chechens and Uzbeks, and their
    tribal allies, are hiding there and have used the remote
    region to train fighters and co-ordinate attacks on targets
    inside Pakistan.

    Many of the foreign fighters have been living in tribal
    areas since 1989, after they helped oust the Soviets from
    neighbouring Afghanistan in a U.S.-funded insurgency.

    Others fled there when the U.S. military launched its
    war on the Afghan Taliban in the wake of the September 11,
    2001 attacks. Al Qaeda had been allowed by the Taliban to
    operate inside Afghanistan.

    "The foreign elements are still present in the area
    although they are not in big hideouts. They are in penny
    packets in different areas and we are keeping an eye on
    those," Sultan said.

    Some al Qaeda-linked suspects arrested in a recent
    Pakistani swoop against the international terror network
    had visited tribal regions in recent months.

    On Wednesday (September 8), six civilians were killed
    in clashes between the army and militants in a bazaar in
    Wana and Sultan said on Wednesday the army arrested 28
    people after the clash in the main market of the town.


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