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Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., walks and eats an ice cream cone during a stop at the Ice Cream Capital of the World Visitors Center, Monday, Aug. 6, 2007, in Le Mars, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Posted on 08/07/2007 11:25:52 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Tuesday that talk of U.S. military strikes against al-Qaida in Pakistan only hurts the fight against terrorism, and his troops bombarded militant hideouts in their strongest response yet to a month of anti-government attacks. Ten suspected militants were killed.
The assault by artillery and helicopter gunships "knocked out" two compounds in Daygan village in the tribal belt near the border with Afghanistan that were being used as staging posts for attacks on security forces, said Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, the army's top spokesman.
Ten militants were killed and at least seven were wounded in the operation, about 10 miles west of Miran Shah, the main town in the North Waziristan region, he said.
No ground troops were used in the operation, and the report on militant casualties was based on information from "local sources," he said without elaborating.
There were at least four smaller-scale bombings and shootings in the border region Tuesday, the latest in almost daily violence that has intensified pressure on Musharraf to crack down on militants in the area.
Musharraf, a key ally in Washington's war against terrorism, told visiting Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., that comments by senior U.S. officials and presidential hopefuls about the possibility of unilateral U.S. strikes within the country were not helpful. Musharraf met Durbin in the southern city of Karachi.
"He emphasized that only Pakistan's security forces, which were fully capable of dealing with any situation, would take counterterrorism action inside Pakistani territory," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The president pointed out that certain recent U.S. statements were counterproductive to the close cooperation and coordination between the two countries in combating the threat of terrorism," the ministry said.
President Bush said Monday that America and Pakistan, if armed with good intelligence, could track and kill al-Qaida leaders in Pakistan. He stopped short of saying whether he would ask Musharraf before dispatching U.S. troops to the country.
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., a presidential candidate, has said that he would use military force in Pakistan if necessary to root out terrorists, prompting angry responses from Pakistani officials.
Musharraf also described a new law tying U.S. aid to Pakistan to progress in combatting militants as an "irritant in the bilateral relationship," the statement said.
His comments came two days before he is due to hold talks with Afghan President Hamid Karzai about border security at a tribal council, or jirga, in Afghanistan.
Arshad said U.S.-made Cobra helicopter gunships and artillery attacked the compounds in North Waziristan about 5 a.m. after receiving intelligence that militants were there. Militants fired back with light and heavy weapons. The clash lasted about four hours, he said.
"The militants used to regroup and prepare attacks on security forces and take refuge at these compounds, so security forces targeted them," Arshad told Dawn television.
A local security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of his job, said a stray mortar round had hit a home in Miran Shah, injuring three or four people.
The Daygan assault appeared to be the toughest military action since troops withdrawn from the tribal zone in September 2006 began to redeploy there in July, following the collapse of a controversial peace deal with pro-Taliban militants.
Since then, attacks on government forces have risen, and more than 360 people have been killed, including at least 102 in the army's raid last month of the radical Red Mosque in Islamabad. Militants have vowed to avenge those deaths.
Elsewhere along the border Tuesday, a soldier was killed in a drive-by attack on security forces by two men on a motorcycle in North West Frontier Province, according to police official Israr Khan. Another soldier was killed in North Waziristan by a bomb that exploded near him as he fetched water from a stream, a security official said.
In Bannu, a city near North Waziristan, a bomb exploded Tuesday evening close to a police station, injuring five civilians but no police, said Amir Maqbool Shah, a Bannu police officer.
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Associated Press Writers Bashirullah Khan in Miran Shah and Riaz Khan in Peshawar contributed to this report.
I’d vote for Mushariff as POTUS before I’d vote for Obama.
Now that Pakistan has confirmed that OBL is in their country I will know where to send a postcard. Hopefully, GWB will soon sent OBL postcard attached to a missile somewhere in Pakistan.
AHHAHAHAAHAHAHA...aint that the truth! Mushariff has escaped death more times than evil kenevil!
WOW! I can’t wait for the MSM to expose Obama’s total stupidity in suggesting that we invade an ally!
Obama has already changed his stance seven times since he threatened to attack our ally. Musharraf has no chance to keep up with a person of that nimbleness of mind.
apparently not as pro-terrorist as Hussein Obama.
..Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., walks and eats an ice cream cone during a stop at the Ice Cream Capital of the World Visitors Center, Monday, Aug. 6, 2007, in Le Mars, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
Over Obama, sure. He’s more pro-american.
pissant, I HATE Obama but must point out that your comparison is not valid. Musharaff, despite his recent posturing in the face of a threatened American strike in Waziristan is no benevolent ally. Don’t forget - this man was was of the major actors behind the creation and arming of Taliban and Al Queda prior to 9/11.
Perhaps, but other than the US, Mushariff has killed more terorists in the last 5 years than anyone else. Depsite being a dictator, a shady past and being only an ally of convenience, he still is both smarter and more capable than Obama ever will be.
It might be bizarre. But it is not a statement on Mushariff’s odious past, it’s a statement on Obama’s odious present and stupidity.
I’d also vote for any random cowpie over Obama.
Now that part, is easy enough to have an instinctual understanding of...
Whatsamatta with Obama and the liberal Dems who keep mouthing this "we should have attacked Pakistan, or Saudi Arabia, or ANYWHERE but Saddam's Iraq"???
The really want us out of the frying pan, and into the fire? Not only us, but many million others, too?
I guess the answer is, they don't care. They will say (with twisted words) anything that can be used to second guess and attack the present administration. Regardless of cost...
The Dems keep pushing me into becoming even more of a hard-core Republican supporter. Obama, at this point, is so bad, even HillaryTM makes more sense than this big-eared big mouth, Barrack Hussein Obama.
You guys and gals know Musharref is not our friend, right??? He’s only with us because he knows what we will do if he strays a bit farther off course...
And we are trying our best to not allow him to do that...
Now that he knows he has to show some effort...There will be (and we have already seen on another FR thread here today) stepped up efforts to drive the press away from them being in the spotlight too much with Obama’s comments and other flagilations...
I for one will always be skeptical of anything being reported on about these “efforts”...
We cannot afford to let our guard down one bit...
Eventually unless OBL’s head is on a stick, Mr. M over there knows it is only a matter of time (if he doesn’t get it done) that we’ll be over in there beating the bushes...
And its going to happen before the big election...Or it will never happen...
If a two term president cannot muster the rest of those goobers together in D.C. to give the War on Terror the tools and parameters to get it done in 8 years???
It ain’t going to get done...
The nambies will win again...
All because we only tried to get it done...
These statements are all for local comsumpstion.....we have the green light I will bet.
We have folks with them, I would bet.
Yep.
We get a whiff of OBL or Ayman are... its go time. I think that decision has been made.
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