Posted on 10/01/2005 4:43:24 AM PDT by Flavius
PESHAWAR: Federal Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao on Friday conceded the loss of 11 soldiers in two days of fighting in North Waziristan as helicopter gunships again bombed villages to flush out militants who have been offering stiff resistance to Pakistan Army troops.
The intense fighting has caused casualties on both sides and forced hundreds of villagers to evacuate to safer places. The village of Khattay Killay, scene of most of the fighting, has reportedly been emptied of the population due to the intense exchange of fire in the area and the constant threat to life and property.
Precise casualty figures were not available, primarily due to the fact that fighting was still going on in the area. In an interview to BBC Urdu service, Interior Minister Sherpao said six troops were killed on Thursday while another five, including an Army Major, died on Friday.
He said nine of the dead were Pakistan Army soldiers while the remaining two were militiamen from the paramilitary Frontier Corps. The minister estimated that 25 to 30 militants were also killed in the fighting.
However, Sherpao did not say anything about reports that 20 soldiers had gone missing after being deployed in the Khattay Killay area. Tribal elders and Ulema who met Major-General Muhammad Akram Sahi, General Officer Commanding (GOC), Peshawar and commander of the troops battling the militants in North Waziristan, in Miranshah town on Friday afternoon quoted him as saying that 19 Pakistan Army soldiers and one Frontier Corps militiaman were missing.
Requesting anonymity, they said the general wanted recovery of his men and delivery of militants to the military before any agreement on ceasefire. More than 200 tribal Maliks and Ulema waited the whole day on Friday for fighting to subside before travelling to Khattay Killay in the Hamzoni tribal territory near Miranshah, headquarters of North Waziristan, in a bid to effect ceasefire.
They had come from all over North Waziristan to the Miranshah Fort to meet political agent Syed Zaheerul Islam and seek his instructions regarding terms of the ceasefire. They were made to wait for Maj-Gen Sahi, who was directing military operations in the battle zone. The general later met the Jirga members and discussed the situation in North Waziristan.
If the Jirga is able to undertake the journey to Khattay Killay today, its major task would be to prevail upon the village elders to allow troops to search the suspected homes. However, the Jirga members said they want the military to stop the bombing of the village by helicopter gunships to enable them to mediate between the two sides.
Maulana Nek Zaman, the pro-MMA MNA from North Waziristan, his colleague Senator Mateen Shah, JUI-F leader Maulana Abdul Rahman, and leading tribal elder Malik Qadir Khan are some of the prominent members of the Jirga.
A 180-member Jirga had gone to Khattay Killay on Thursday but the fighting and bombing prevented them from pursuing their task. Official sources said the troops were keen to lay hands on Maulana Sadiq Noor, who belongs to Khattay Killay where he runs a Madrassa and is accused of harbouring militants. He and other important figures among the tribal militants had reportedly escaped from Khattay Killay.
Earlier, tribal militants from all over North Waziristan were reported to have rushed to Khattay Killay to join the fighting and resist the military. Meanwhile, the bodies of Major Muhammad Khan, who belonged to Swat, and two soldiers who were killed in the fighting on Thursday were recovered from the hills near Khazoyo village and flown away in a helicopter.
Tribal elders too had been sent early on Friday to retrieve the bodies of the fallen soldiers. Tribal sources said at least six tribesmen were among the dead in the affected villages. The militants too suffered casualties but they would have taken away bodies of their slain colleagues.
results of the above offensive
sounds like a pretty fierce fight.
"militants"
call them for what they are - stark raving mad rabid barbaric jihadi terroristi.
Pak army dead numbers seem too high in relation to militants killed. Are they just bad soldiers or what?
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