Nearly 120 pro-Taliban militants have been killed during three days of clashes with Pakistani forces in a remote tribal town, the military said on Monday.
”According to latest information, the death toll in fighting last Saturday has gone up to 100. This is in addition to the 19 killed this morning in Miranshah,” military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan told Agence France-Presse.
Sultan earlier said 19 militants, including some foreigners, died on Monday when troops tried to take control of a telephone exchange in Miranshah, the main town in the semi-autonomous North Waziristan tribal agency.
Five paramilitary soldiers have also been killed, he said.
Earlier Qazi Ijaz, a spokesman for the governor of North West Frontier Province, which borders the tribal belt, also said that more than 100 rebels had died in the fighting.
”Intelligence reports and information gathered from local sources indicate that more than 100 militants had been killed in fighting in Miranshah.” Authorities had also imposed a curfew in Miranshah, he said.
The fighting broke out on Saturday when hundreds of tribal rebels seized government buildings in revenge for an army raid three days earlier, targeting an al-Qaeda training camp. That raid killed 40 militants, including foreigners.
Pakistani forces have spent the last four years battling al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who sneaked across from Afghanistan after a US-led military operation toppled the Taliban in late 2001.
They have also battled the Taliban’s local supporters in the semi-autonomous tribal regions, who are blamed for the current unrest. — AFP
