http://www.dawn.com/2004/09/14/top7.htm
Waziristan clashes leave eight dead
By Dawn Report
WANA/MIRAMSHAH, Sept 13: Clashes between security forces and armed Mahsud tribesmen in the South Waziristan tribal region have claimed eight more lives,
independent sources said on Monday.
Tension is high in the North Waziristan region where terrified tribesmen were leaving their homes in the Razmak sub- division for safe places elsewhere. Eyewitnesses
said that a large number of families, mostly women and children, were seen heading towards Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan districts. Meanwhile, fresh enforcements
have been sent from Miramshah to Razmak close to the Makin bazaar.
Reports said that three houses came under artillery shelling in the Makin area and the eight people, including a woman and three children, were killed. There are no
figures about the wounded.
Sources said that fresh clashes between the security forces and militants had been reported from Kani Guram, Makin bazaar and Karwan Mainza on the fifth day.
They added that volunteers of the Mahsud tribe had also taken up arms.
Reports reaching from the troubled zone suggested that both sides were targeting each other's positions with mortar shells, artillery, missiles and rockets. The
exchange of heavy fire continued all Sunday night and on Monday.
The sources said that security forces were firing artillery from the Luddah base camp and Kani Guram to destroy positions of the insurgents in the Makin area.
However, despite the massive shelling, the Makin bazaar remained under the control of the supporters of two influential tribesmen, Abdullah Mahsud and Baitullah
Mahsud.
The authorities have disconnected telephone connections and power supply to the area and encircled the hostile zone. All roads and other access routes have been
blocked. As a result, people are finding it difficult to take wounded tribesmen to hospitals in other areas.
Militants fired four missiles on Sunday night on a high school building housing security forces in Kani Guram. No casualty was reported. However, there are conflicting
reports about losses suffered by the army side in the clashes.
Sources in Wana said that 25 security personnel had been brought to the military hospital in the brigade headquarters in Zari Noor colony on Sunday and Monday.
No army spokesman was available for comments.
Our Peshawar bureau adds: Tribal militant Abdullah Mahsud has claimed that his supporters had captured 43 troops and a number of security personnel had been
killed in the Karwan Mainza area where security forces had fought pitched battle with militants last week.
He invited media and other organisations to visit the agency and see the captured troops and bodies of those killed. Tribesmen held a protest meeting in Spinkai
Raghzai on Monday.
Speaking at the meeting, local cleric Maulana Niaz Mohammad said that it was not a war against foreign militants but against tribesmen who, he alleged, had suffered
immense casualties.
He called upon the Mahsud tribesmen to prepare themselves to defend innocent tribesmen. Sources said that NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah had
cancelled his Wana visit on Monday due to the security situation in the region. The governor was scheduled to meet tribal elders in Wana to discuss the situation."
From other open sources, engagements continue over a wide area, including Ladha, Kaniguram, Tauda China, and Marobi. Marobi is on the north bank of the Tank Zam river, and forms the eastern vertex of an equilateral triangle with Ladha and Makin.
The enemy still holds Makin, while the Pak Army reports having isolated that area by closing the roads to form a perimeter. Further reports indicate Pak reinforcements moving from Miram Shah to Razmak.
http://www.dawn.com/2004/09/15/top5.htm
Fighting intensifies in S. Waziristan
By Dawn Report
WANA/MIRAMSHAH, Sept 14: Fighting between army troops and militants in several parts of the South Waziristan region intensified on Tuesday and there are
reports of massive casualties on both sides.
Jet planes and helicopter gunships carried out strikes in the Makin, Tauda China, Sher Koat and Shobikhel areas where, sources said, militants were offering
resistance to security forces.
Large-scale evacuation of families has been reported from the areas, with people heading towards Razmak in the North Waziristan region. According to unofficial
reports, about 500 families have left the area.
An official source said that paramilitary forces had entered the troubled Makin bazaar on Tuesday and flushed out militants. The report could not be confirmed from
independent sources.
"Air strikes have caused huge destruction in residential areas in Makin," said Maulana Mohammad Tahir, claiming to be an eyewitness. Unofficial reports said that 12
soldiers were killed when a military truck was blown up by a remote-controlled device between Luddah and Makin bazaar. But, an army spokesman denied that any
such incident had taken place.
According to another report, four troops were killed and 11 wounded when an army convoy was ambushed near Jandola. The convoy was moving towards the
brigade headquarters in Zari Noor when it was attacked at about 7 pm.
Two soldiers were confirmed dead and seven others were wounded when militants fired rockets at the Wana Scouts camp and ambushed a military convoy in the
Sarwekai area. Residents said that one paramilitary soldier was killed and three other were injured.
Sources said that one soldier was killed and a captain and two other soldiers were wounded and three vehicles were damaged in a hit-and-run attack on a military
convoy. The troops called in air support and jet planes pounded suspected positions to dislodge the attackers. ISPR spokesman Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan confirmed
the attack on the convoy in the Sarwekai area, but said that only two soldiers had suffered injuries.
The military convoy was on its way from Wana to Bannu district, he told Dawn by phone from Islamabad. "Military has definitely suffered casualties, but these are
minimal," Maj-Gen Sultan said.
He said that an exchange of firing had taken place between troops and militants near Karwan Narai in the area. The sources said that the convoy was ambushed by
supporters of tribal militant Noor Alam alias Abdullah Mahsud, who had been recently released from America's Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba.
Independent sources said that army and paramilitary forces had pounded Makin bazaar from four sides and forced the insurgents to vacate their positions. Reports
said that security forces also targeted a seminary and the residence of a local cleric, Maulana Mohammad Shafiq, in Makin bazaar.
The seminary was believed to have been used as a shelter by foreign militants. Maj-Gen Sultan denied that the forces had attached the seminary, but said that the
Maulana's fortress- like house had been fired upon.
He said that the house was used by militants for attacks on forces and civilians. In Makin bazaar, one soldier, Sajid, was killed, while another sepoy, Rajab, suffered
injuries.
Reports of clashes have also been received from three other areas, Karwan Minza, Asman Minza and Della, largely inhabited by Mahsuds. Army officials said that
insurgents had been wiped out from the entire South Waziristan region, except a seven-kilometre area, including Makin, where the military was carrying out the
operation.
REUTER ADDS: At least four civilians were killed and 15 wounded in clashes between troops and militants, relatives said on Tuesday. Imran Khan Shabikhel told
Reuters his relatives came under fire on Monday afternoon while trying to escape from Makin.
"Yesterday, we left Makin and came under fire while crossing a dry ravine," he said. "The fire came from the ground and the air," said Shabikhel, a student who lives
in Makin. His relative, Mohammad Fazal, was being treated in hospital in Dera Ismail Khan for leg wounds caused by shrapnel in the same incident.
He said he was in a group of about 30 people who were fleeing the region when government forces opened fire. "The injured and the dead lay there for some time.
We asked the security forces to allow us to bury the dead and then they allowed us to go," he said.
Shabikhel said four of his relatives were killed and about 15 people were wounded in the Monday afternoon incident. No military official was available for immediate
comment on civilian casualties.