PAKISTAN: TROOPS KILL EIGHT SUSPECTED AL QAEDA FIGHTERS AND CAPTURE EIGHTEEN OTHERS AT ANGOR ADDA, SOUTH WAZIRISTAN

Record ID: 376162

  • Title: PAKISTAN: TROOPS KILL EIGHT SUSPECTED AL QAEDA FIGHTERS AND CAPTURE EIGHTEEN OTHERS AT ANGOR ADDA, SOUTH WAZIRISTAN
  • Date: 2nd October 2003
  • Summary: (W8) ANGOR ADDA, SOUTH WAZIRISTAN, PAKISTAN (OCTOBER 2, 2003)(REUTERS -ACCESS ALL) 1. AERIAL VIEW OF ANGOR ADDA. (2 SHOTS) 0.05 2. WS: PAKISTANI TROOPS HURRYING INTO VEHICLES. (2 SHOTS) 0.16 3. LV: ARMY VEHICLES MOVING AWAY. 0.21 4. VARIOUS: TROOPS IN ACTION. (7 SHOTS) 0.44 5. LV/ZOOM IN/MLV: CAPTIVES BEING LED AWAY. 1.01
  • Embargoed: 17th October 2003 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ANGOR ADDA, SOUTH WAZIRISTAN, PAKISTAN
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Reuters ID: LVA4L0X4YEVGJZMU33FW2AX295ZZ
  • Story Text: Clashes erupt between Pakistani security forces and
    suspected al Qaeda fighters on the Afghan border.



    Pakistani forces killed eight suspected al Qaeda
    fighters on Thursday (October 2) and arrested 18 more in an
    operation near the Afghan border touted as a demonstration
    of commitment to the U.S.-led war on terror.

    Two Pakistani soldiers were killed and two wounded as
    the al Qaeda suspects put up what the army called "stiff
    resistance".

    " They are putting up stiff resistance. The Pakistani
    security forces fired only when they were compelled to fire.

    They first announced to those people to surrender
    voluntarily, and thereafter they made an effort to
    apprehend them alive. And once they were fired upon by the
    other side only then they opened up fire; and the fight is
    still going on," said military spokesman Major General
    Shaukat.

    Small-arms fire crackled during the afternoon and a
    Cobra helicopter swooped overhead firing its machine-guns
    in the rugged tribal country just a few km (miles) from the
    Afghan frontier.

    Reporters taken by helicopter to the scene, 350 km (220
    miles) southwest of the capital Islamabad, saw four dead
    bodies under blankets and military officials said there
    were four more bodies lying where they fell.

    Eighteen fighters were arrested, three of them wounded.

    Of the 10 seen by journalists, four were blindfolded
    and possibly of Arabic or Central Asian origin, with long
    black beards. Six were apparently Pakistanis or Afghans,
    and all had their hands tied behind their backs.

    A large cache of arms, mines and basic surveillance
    equipment was found in one of the rebel compounds, around
    two km (1.5 miles) from the dusty frontier town of Angor
    Adda.

    Major General Faisal Alavi, commander of special forces
    in the area where the operation took place, said some
    captives appeared to be from Afghanistan's ousted Taliban.

    The presence of foreign fighters at the scene suggested
    al Qaeda involvement.

    The sweep came on the day U.S. Deputy Secretary of
    State Richard Armitage had been expected in Pakistan on a
    regional tour. But his visit was delayed because of
    "scheduling issues" until Saturday, Foreign Ministry
    spokesman Masood Khan said.

    Alavi told Reuters Pakistani troops had surrounded a
    complex of five mud-walled compounds early on Thursday
    where they believed al Qaeda fighters were hiding.

    When the army asked the occupants to surrender, 10
    women and children emerged but the others refused to come
    out, and soon afterwards opened fire on the troops.

    The fighting spread to the surrounding hills and
    valleys after some rebels broke out of the compound.

    He said about 40 militants had been seen crossing into
    Pakistan's semi-autonomous South Waziristan agency carrying
    the bodies of fighters killed in clashes inside
    Afghanistan.

    Afghanistan has long accused Islamabad of not doing
    enough to stop Islamic militants it says cross from
    Pakistan's remote border regions to carry out strikes on
    U.S. and Afghan targets.

    Most of the cross-border raids have been blamed on
    remnants of the hard-line Taliban ousted from power in late
    2001 and resurgent in some parts of Afghanistan.

    Sultan said the rebels captured and killed in the
    latest clash could have been involved in the raids,
    including one on U.S. soldiers near their base at Shkin
    this week in which one soldier was killed and two injured.

    Many Taliban and al Qaeda guerrillas are believed to
    have taken refuge in Pakistan's border areas since U.S.

    bombing began in Afghanistan two years ago, and the area
    around Shkin has become a notorious hotspot for the
    Americans.

    Pakistan says it has arrested about 500 al Qaeda
    members since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United
    States. They include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected
    mastermind of the September 11 plot.

    Pakistani and U.S. officials suspect Saudi-born
    militant Osama bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri,
    may be hiding in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area.

    An audio tape purporting to be of Zawahri was aired on
    Arabic television channels last week in which he urged
    Pakistanis to overthrow President Pervez Musharraf for
    "betraying" Islam by supporting U.S. military action in
    Afghanistan.



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