At least 60 people were killed on Thursday in Pakistan’s heaviest-ever bombing in the tribal South Waziristan region where al-Qaeda suspects were believed to be hiding, witnesses said.
Military spokesperson Major General Shaukat Sultan said a foreign terrorist training camp was targeted in the ”precise strike” that lasted for two hours in Dila Khula, about 25km east of the region’s administrative centre, Wana.
Sultan claimed the camp had been knocked out ”successfully” and all militants in the area were eliminated.
”There were confirmed reports of training activities being conducted by foreign elements including Uzbeks, Chechens and a few Arabs who were then indulging in sabotage and terrorist acts in the country,” he said in a statement.
Sultan did not give the number of casualties, however, locals said two fighter jets, supported by at least 10 gunship helicopters, killed about 60 individuals, mainly women and children.
Reports from Wana said a convoy of vehicles carrying military reinforcements to the troubled area also came under fire in the Manza area, resulting in a shoot-out between security forces and unknown attackers.
”The exchange of fire is on and there is no further information about damages or casualty,” said local resident Tariq Wazir.
Locals said reconnaissance planes flew over the villages of Ladah, Shinke, Qamarkale and Ragzai, about 50km northwest of Wana, after which a missile hit a gathering of suspected foreign and local militants.
Tribesman Allah Noor said people were picking up bodies when the aircraft struck again, causing more casualties.
The air raid comes a day after a military convoy was hit by a landmine near Wana, leading to a reported exchange of fire between security forces and suspects that left eight people dead. Three soldiers were also injured in the blast.
The country’s border region has been the site of frequent attacks by suspected al-Qaeda fugitives and a few local militants on security forces and their installations, despite claims by senior military officials that the militants have been flushed out
and their hideouts destroyed.
As a close ally of the United States in its war on terror, Pakistani troops have been hunting suspected Taliban and al-Qaeda remnants who escaped US military searches in neighbouring Afghanistan after the fall of the radical regime in December 2001. – Sapa-DPA