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http://www.dawn.com/2004/06/13/top11.htm

Precision bombs hit Shakai hide-outs

By Our Correspondent

WANA, June 12: Air force jets and military helicopters bombed suspected hide-outs of foreign militants in the remote tribal region for the second day on Saturday.

Official sources said the jets and helicopters fired precision bombs on suspected targets to soften resistance in the Shakai valley, about 17km north of here.

"Every effort is being made to minimise collateral damage and so far there has been none," said one source.

He said that the army infantry had started moving into the embattledvalley and had reached the centre of the region. It also conducted search for foreign militants in Mantoi and Mandata areas.

He also said that the army had seized a number of suspects and werenow screening them to find out if there were any foreign and local militants amongst them. The army faced light resistance and sporadic gunfire. No real battle took place anywhere, he said.

Meanwhile, political authorities in South Waziristan have issued notices to Afghan refugees asking them to vacate 10 refugee camps and leave the Wana subdivision 'within 72 hours'.

"They may go anywhere but they will have to leave Wana," said oneofficial. The step, he added, was needed due to security perception.

The UNHCR confirmed that the authorities had issued orders to refugeesto leave the area and said it was assessing the situation to see what could be done to help them.

An Afghan refugee told Dawn that the time given to them was too short to leave the area.

"Where will we go? We have our homes here and own business here. Already, we have our shops sealed by the authorities under the economic blockade. We have been farming here. It would need time to wind up the whole thing," Badshah Khan, who lives in one of the refugee camps, said.

The authorities have also imposed a defacto night curfew in Wana.Notices issued to local residents warned that anyone moving about or driving around after sunset would be doing so at his own risk.

It said that people in distress or those carrying patients would have to hoist a white flag on their vehicles in the evening and stop at least 30 yards from a security checkpoint and identify themselves and relate the situation.

"Anybody violating the orders would be risking his own life and would be responsible consequences of his action," the notice warned.

A third notice issued on behalf of the military authorities warnedlocal journalists not to go anywhere near the operation area and said that any reporter trying to go to the area would be doing so at his own risk.

Meanwhile, it is learnt, Shakai's political moharrar Allaudin, and a khasadar have been missing since the launch of the military operation.

According to eyewitnesses, six bodies were brought to Wana on Saturday, four of them were of militants and two of soldiers killed in action.

In the morning on Saturday, suspected militants fired three rockets at the Scouts Camp in Wana. The rockets overflew the camp and one of them hit the room of Dr Izatullah, a child specialist at the Agency Headquarters Hospital, damaging the room.

The two other rockets landed near the Degree College. No-one was hurt in the attack.

Officials said that the operation would continue for some time and might take from one week to 10 days to complete. "The militants have only two options. They will either have to surrender or leave the area. The military is making use of full force at its command and is determined to flush out foreign militants from the region," said one official.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ISL13868.htm

Pakistani forces battle al Qaeda-linked militants
13 Jun 2004 09:11:42 GMT
By Hafiz Wazir

WANA, Pakistan, June 13 (Reuters) - Pakistani forces battled al Qaeda-linked militants on Sunday in a fifth day of fighting in a remote tribal region bordering Afghanistan, where several army posts came under rocket attack, witnesses said.

Artillery fire boomed in the Shakai area of South Waziristan, 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Islamabad, where Pakistani forces were trying to flush-out foreign and local militants from their mountain hideouts, witnesses said.

"Our houses shook because of the artillery fire all night," said one resident in Wana, the main town of South Waziristan. The army was hitting targets in the Shakai area.

Militants fired rockets at two remote Pakistani posts near the Afghan border on Saturday night, but there was no reports of casualties, residents said. The posts are some distance away from the battle-zone.

More than 50 combatants -- 35 militants and 15 soldiers -- were killed in the first two days of fighting, the army said. Since then, the army has not updated the figure but official sources said the number of casualties in the five days of fighting was much higher. Pakistan says up to 600 foreign militants, including Arabs, Chechens and Uzbeks linked to Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, have been hiding out in the semi-autonomous tribal areas, protected by Pakistani tribesmen.

Pakistani forces sent air force jets to bomb militant hideouts on Friday for the first time -- raising the stakes in the war against al Qaeda in the country.

In March, Pakistan used helicopter gunships in heavy clashes against the militants in which more than 120 people, including at least 46 soldiers, 63 militants, and some civilians were killed.

No fresh air-strikes were carried out overnight and early on Sunday, residents said.

Pakistani forces are targeting suspected training camps and safe-houses of militants. The houses of residents thought to be supporting militants are also being destroyed.

Top al Qaeda leaders -- including possibly bin Laden -- are believed to be hiding out in Pakistan's mountainous tribal region.

The U.S. military in Afghanistan has said it has employed a "hammer and anvil" approach in coordination with the Pakistani military to prevent militants escaping across the border.

The Pakistani operation near Wana was launched amid a broad operation by U.S. and Afghan forces across several provinces of southern Afghanistan aimed at improving security for Afghan elections due in September.

The U.S. military said on Saturday more than 80 militants had been killed in that operation over the past three weeks.

In Pakistan, the army said it launched the latest offensive in the tribal regions after attempts to negotiate an amnesty with tribesmen protecting foreign militants failed.

"We want them to surrender or they will be wiped out," said a security official speaking on condition of anonymity.

"We have identified 16 more compounds and places in the Shakai area that are being used by militants," he said. "They are also being targeted," he added, declining to give details.

Authorities fear that shadowy Islamic militant groups could launch attacks in other parts of the country in response to the operation in the tribal region.

On Thursday, a Pakistan army commander narrowly escaped assassination when a gun and bomb attack on his convoy killed 10 people in the port city of Karachi.

Security has been heightened at Western establishments, sensitive government installations and places of worship in major cities because of fears of more such assaults by militants sympathetic to al Qaeda, officials said.

Pakistan has already witnessed a spate of assaults on religious minorities, top government officials and Westerners. Six months ago, President General Pervez Musharraf survived two assassination attempts that were blamed on al Qaeda-linked militants. Later Musharraf revealed several low-ranking military personnel were also involved.

Hardline Pakistani Islamic groups are furious over their government's decision to back the United States in a war against terror after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington