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60 Taliban, 5 soldiers dead in Pakistan offensive
2009-Oct-19 09:25:58

MIR ALI, Pakistan: Pakistani forces exchanged heavy fire Sunday with Taliban defending their heartland, a day after launching an offensive aimed at bringing the writ of the state to lawless lands on the Afghan border.

The army said 60 militants and five soldiers had been killed in the first 24 hours of a long-awaited offensive on the global Islamist hub of South Waziristan. Soldiers were securing territory while some militants were fleeing, it said.

It was not possible to independently verify those figures because reporters have been stopped from getting close to the battlefield.

The operation in South Waziristan follows repeated requests from the US to take on the jihadists behind soaring terrorist attacks in the nuclear-armed nation, as well as Al-Qaida and other extremists believed to be plotting strikes in the West.

The army is up against about 10,000 local militants and about 1,500 foreign fighters, most of them from Central Asia. They control roughly 3,310 sq km of territory, or about half of South Waziristan, in areas loyal to former militant chief Baitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a US missile strike in August.

The army said it had surrounded the militants in their main zone, a wedge of territory in the north of South Waziristan, and soldiers backed by aircraft and artillery were attacking from the north, southwest and southeast.

Government forces pushing down from the north were clashing with militants in Nawaz Kot town, intelligence officials and residents said.

"There was heavy firing until midnight and in the morning I saw tanks moving in and Taliban were firing rocket-propelled grenades," said villager Gul Nawaz, who lives near Nawaz Kot.

The army has launched brief offensives in South Waziristan before, the first in 2004 when it suffered heavy casualties before striking a peace pact.

Taliban's counter-claim

Security officials said soldiers advancing from the southwest met dogged resistance as they tried to push into the Taliban-held town of Khaisora early Sunday.

Soldiers moving from the southeast captured a Taliban stronghold at Spinkai Raghzai on Saturday after the militants took refuge in nearby mountains, officials said. But a Taliban spokesman said the army was being repulsed and he vowed attacks on supporters of President Barack Obama.

"They're trying to enter our land from all sides but we've repulsed their assault and they've suffered heavy losses," spokesman Azam Tariq said by telephone.

One Taliban had been killed and three wounded, he said.

Accounts from residents and those fleeing Sunday suggested that the 30,000 troops were in for a bloodier time than in the Swat Valley, another northwestern region that the army successfully wrested away from insurgents earlier this year.

"Militants are offering very tough resistance to any movement of troops," Ehsan Mahsud, a resident of Makeen, a town in the region, told The Associated Press in the town of Mir Ali, close to the battle zone. He and a friend arrived there early Sunday after traveling through the night.

A resident in Wana - the main town in South Waziristan and in the heart of Taliban-held territory - said the insurgents had left the town and were stationed on the borders of the region, determined to block any army advance.

"All the Taliban who used to be around here have gone to take their position to protect the Mehsud boundary," Azamatullah Wazir said by phone Sunday. "The army will face difficulty to get in there."

Civilians flee region

As many as 150,000 civilians - possibly more - have left in recent months after the army made clear it was planning an assault, but as many as 350,000 could still be in the region. The United Nations has been stockpiling relief supplies in a town near the region, but authorities are not expecting a major refugee crisis like the one that occurred during the offensive this year in the Swat Valley.

AP-Reuters

 

 

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