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The Middle East's Leading English Language Daily
Thursday 22 November 2007 (12 Dhul Qa`dah 1428)
Troops Wipe Out Militant Base in Swat; Scores Killed
Agence France Presse -
ISLAMABAD, 22 November 2007 - Pakistani troops wiped out a
mountaintop militant base in a troubled northwestern valley, killing at least
40 followers of a rebel pro-Taleban cleric, the military said yesterday.
The insurgents were killed on Tuesday in the Swat Valley, a
tourist spot which has been partly occupied by militants, top army spokesman
Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad said.
Residents said four civilians also died in clashes in Swat.
The army says around 190 people have been killed during more than a week of
heavy fighting in the region, which borders Pakistan's troubled tribal belt.
Arshad said soldiers had cleared a "hub of resistance" from a
hilltop in the valley's Shangla district, where the militants have dug in
against security forces.
"The operation is continuing today in several parts of Swat,"
Arshad told AFP.
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, who cited growing
militancy as one of the key reasons for declaring emergency rule on Nov. 3, has
ordered the military to flush militants out of the area.
Militants fired around 20 rockets at a security forces camp
in the town of Kabal after which soldiers fired back, but there were no reports
of casualties on either side, an army statement said. Separately a crudely-made
bomb exploded near a police station but caused no casualties or damage, it said.
Residents in Kabal said that intense gunfire continued
through Tuesday night and that gunship helicopters also pounded suspected
militant hide-outs early yesterday.
The military had asked local people to vacate the area on
Monday to avoid civilian casualties.
But residents said four civilians were killed and two others
were injured when a mortar shell fell on a house. It was not clear whether it
was fired by militants or troops, they said.
Unrest erupted in Swat in July when hard-line cleric Maulana
Fazlullah's forces occupied several villages and called for the imposition of
Shariah law.
Fazlullah is nicknamed "Mullah Radio" because he runs a
pirate FM radio station that calls for a holy war on government forces.
Meanwhile officials said that the situation was calm in a
Pakistani tribal town bordering Afghanistan where bloody sectarian clashes have
claimed at least 112 lives.
Tribal leaders launched efforts on Tuesday to keep the peace
in Parachinar, the town at the center of the violence.
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