 |
| |
WEEKLY
SECTIONS |
 |
 |
 |
|
| 22 soldiers killed in Waziristan |
|
|
|
Monday, June 29, 2009
20 troops die as convoy comes under attack in NWA; 12 militants, two soldiers perish in SWA
By Mushtaq Yusufzai,
Malik Mumtaz Khan & Irfan Burki
PESHAWAR/MIRAMSHAH/WANA: Twenty-two soldiers were killed and thirty-five others injured in two separate attacks by militants in North and South Waziristan agencies on Sunday. Also a same number of militants were killed in the day-long blitz and retaliatory attacks by security forces in the restive region.
20 Pakistan Army soldiers, including a senior officer, were killed and 35 others sustained injuries, several of them seriously, when dozens of militants, affiliated with Taliban commander Hafiz Gul Bahadur, ambushed a military convoy in Madakhel area of North Waziristan Agency on Sunday.
Also, 12 militants and two soldiers were killed in the ongoing offensive in neighbouring South Waziristan Agency.Ahmadullah Ahmadi, a spokesman for the Hafiz Gul Bahadur-led Taliban in North Waziristan claimed responsibility for the attack on the military convoy and warned to continue similar attacks on the security forces in the region till the US drone strikes were not stopped.
Ahmadi phoned The News from Miramshah and claimed 60 soldiers were killed and 15 vehicles were destroyed in the ambush.Pakistan Army spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas confirmed the attack and said 12 soldiers were martyred and 10 others seriously injured.
When reached by telephone, Athar Abbas told The News that 10 terrorists were later killed when the Pakistan Army gunship choppers pounded positions of the terrorists where they had ambushed the military convoy.
Official and tribal sources told The News from Miramshah that the military convoy was travelling from Madakhel to Wocha Bibi area near the border with Afghanistan when ambushed by the militants.
The convoy came under attack when it was passing through a narrow road surrounded by mountains.Almost in the same place earlier, militants had ambushed a military convoy and killed 16 soldiers in 2007.
The militants first attacked the military with an improvised explosive device (IED) and then started firing with heavy weapons.They said the militants used heavy weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, mortar shells and AK-47 assault rifles.
After the attack, the militants reportedly took away weapons and other items from the slain soldiers.The area is away from main Miramshah town and it took some time when senior military officials came to know about the incident.
Almost two hours later, two military helicopters — a gunship and a transport — were sent to the troubled spot. The chopper shifted 20 bodies of the soldiers and 35 injured to Miramshah. Military officials, who airlifted the injured troops, said a majority of them were in a critical condition.
Some of them were later sent to Bannu and Peshawar in choppers and admitted to military hospitals. Maj Gen Athar Abbas said gunship helicopters later pounded militant positions in the area. It was the second attack on military convoy by the Hafiz Gul Bahadur-led militants in North Waziristan in a week. In an earlier attack near Miramshah, four soldiers were killed and 20 others injured.
Gul Bahadur, who was considered a pro-government Taliban commander after he signed a peace accord with the government on February 17, 2008, has suddenly changed his stance. The tribesmen fear after the attack the government might launch a military operation in North Waziristan.
Elsewhere in South Waziristan, 12 militants were killed and seven others sustained injuries as jetfighters bombed the suspected hideouts of the Taliban. Also, two soldiers were killed and four injured seriously in different parts of the tribal region.
The tribal sources said the gunship helicopters and jetfighters bombed hideouts of the militants at 10:00 am in Saam, Kacha Lungerkhel, Kuram Garhi, Ladha Serai, Tangi Budenzai, Makeen, Janata, Srarogha, Kotkai, Garhagah and suburbs of Ladha Tehsil, killing 12 militants and injuring seven others.
It was reported that six houses of civilians, including that of Dr Bashar Khan, Malik Saad, Noor Khan, Jalut Khan, Bachi Gul and Sher Dati, were bombed by the jetfighters in Saam area of Ladha Tehsil. A fort-shaped-house of Malik Nasir Khan was also destroyed in Garhagah area.
The sources said four compounds of the militants were also targeted by the gunship helicopters in the mountainous areas of the agency. Security forces used artillery while firing from the hilly area of Naray and hit different areas of the Mahsud tribes, including Badar, Sina Tera and Chalweshti.
Forces and militants also traded heavy gunfire in Sholam, Raghzai and Tanai, due to which two soldiers were killed and four others injured. Meanwhile, people started migration from the area amid shelling by security forces towards Tank and Dera Ismail Khan districts. |
|
|
| Back
| Send
this story to Friend | Print
Version |
|
|
‘Al-Qaeda, Taliban leaders not in Pakistan’
ISLAMABAD: Strongly reacting to some of the reports of the presence of al-Qaeda and Taliban leadership in Pakistan by the US newspapers and some intelligence agencies, President Asif Ali Zardari on Friday said more |
|
|
Mulla Omar in Karachi, claims WT
WASHINGTON: Mulla Muhammed Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban, has fled Quetta and found refuge from the potential US attacks in Karachi with the assistance of Pakistan’s intelligence, the Washington Times more |
|
|
Will PM intervene or will robber barons kill CCP?
By Mehtab Haider
ISLAMABAD: The Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has warned that it will cease to exist and its actions will become invalid in case the government fails to re-promulgate the Competition Ordinance on or b more |
|
|
Eight militants die in US drone attack
By our correspondent
MIRAMSHAH: Eight militants were killed and two others injured when a US drone hit a house in the Michikhel area in North Waziristan on Friday, the second such attack in less than 24 hours.
Tribal sources sai more |
|
|
19 militants killed in SWA, Khyber, Bajaur clashes
By our correspondents
WANA/BARA/KHAR: Nineteen militants were killed in clashes with security forces in South Waziristan, Khyber and Bajaur tribal regions on Friday.
Tribal and officials sources said five militants were kille more |
|
|
|
Pakistan has nothing to fear from India: Singh
WASHINGTON: Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said India is ready to resolve all outstanding issues with the country on the condition that it will not allow its territory to be used against its neighbour more |
|
|
|
Qureshi wants result-oriented dialogue with India
MULTAN: Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmud Qureshi said on Friday Pakistan wanted meaningful and result-oriented bilateral negotiations with India.
Addressing a press conference at the airport here, h more |
|
|
|
Only 15 pc believe Pakistan is going right
By Gibran Peshimam
KARACHI: Pakistan’s youths are losing confidence in the future and a mere 15 per cent believe that the country is heading in the right direction, while 72 per cent feel economically worse off than a year ago. O more |
|
|
|
Mustafa Jatoi passes away
ISLAMABAD: Former caretaker prime minister Ghulam Mustafa Jatoi breathed his last at the St Marry Hospital in London on Friday after a protracted illness. He was 78.
He leaves behind six sons and three d more |
|
|
|
Slaughter of animals, NRO beneficiaries begins on Eid
By Muhammad Ahmad Noorani
ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) will soon announce its strategy to deal with the cases which are going to reopen on Nov 28, a NAB spokesman told The News on Friday.
“The NAB chairman more |
|
|
|
WFP, Rescue 15 attacks’ mastermind arrested
By Shakeel Anjum
ISLAMABAD: The Capital Police on Friday arrested the mastermind behind the attacks on the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the Rescue 15 offices in Islamabad.
The terrorist, identified as Jamshed Ahmad more |
|
|
|
Mushahid asks Karzai not to allow use of Afghan land against Pakistan
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Secretary General Pakistan Muslim League-Q Mushahid Hussain Sayed on Friday asked President Hamid Karzai not to allow the use of Afghan land against Pakistan under Indian designs.
“Pakistan wa more |
|
|
|
No Indo-Pak FMs meeting: Nirupama
NEW DELHI: India on Friday said no meeting had been scheduled between foreign ministers of Pakistan and India in Port of Spain later this month on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting ( more |
|
|
|
US to tighten control of Afghan contracts: Gates
HALIFAX: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday that the United States must tighten control of Afghan development contracts as a first step towards stemming rampant corruption.
“The reality is more |
|
|
|
China has stake in Kashmir: Mirwaiz
News Desk
HELD SRINAGAR: As he plans to visit China, Hurriyat Conference leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq on Friday kicked up a controversy by saying that Beijing has a “direct link” with the Kashmir issue, drawing strong obje more |
|
|
|
Clinton favours Indo-Pak dialogue on Kashmir
WASHINGTON: The United States is encouraging Pakistan and India to resume their dialogue to address Kashmir and other outstanding disputes but any solution must come from the two countries, Secretary of State H more |
|
|
|
Competition Commission forces PIA to fly fair
By our correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Silent prayers of many Hajis have apparently been answered as the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has ordered PIA to refund within 60 days the excessive fares charged from the passengers, wh more |
|
|
|
Attack on policemen in Peshawar
By Javed Aziz Khan
PESHAWAR: The death toll in the bomb attack on police party in Yakatoot rose to three after a sub-inspector and another cop succumbed to injuries at the Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) on Friday as the city mourned more |
|
|
|
‘Musharraf funnelling money to improve image’
ISLAMABAD: Former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf has reportedly funnelled a large amount of money to his former aides in the country in order to improve his image, as he is planning a return to the c more |
|
|
|
Sen Lugar’s wife arrested, charged with drinking, hit-and-run
News Desk
WASHINGTON: The wife of Republican Senator Richard G Lugar was arrested in the suburb of McLean on Wednesday night after crashing into a parked car, and she was charged with drunk driving and hit-and-run, the F more |
|
|
|
briefs...
Bombers kill 23 in Afghanistan
HERAT: Bomb attacks on Friday killed 23 people in Afghanistan, a deadly start to President Hamid Karzai’s second term that underscored spiralling insecurity nine years into more |
|
|
|
ISSN 1563-9479 
