News
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Taliban kill eight soldiers in South Waziristan* Key Taliban commander killed by brother-in-law in Khyber Agency
PESHAWAR: At least eight soldiers were killed in clashes after the Taliban attacked a checkpost in South Waziristan on Wednesday, officials said.
Dozens of terrorists, armed with rockets and grenades, stormed the checkpost in Surang Baba Ziarat village, around 30 kilometres north of Wana, the main town of South Waziristan, a senior security official in Peshawar told AFP.
The attack came during a military operation against terrorist hideouts which netted a huge cache of arms and ammunition, the official said.
Eight soldiers were killed and six injured in the checkpost attack, the official said, while 18 terrorists died during three hours of fighting. A second security official confirmed the military death toll.
The area is cut off to journalists and aid workers and it was not possible to confirm the death toll independently.
Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan claimed in a telephone call that they had killed more than 12 soldiers and only one militant had died, but the group often exaggerates military casualties.
South Waziristan is one of seven districts in Pakistan’s semi-autonomous tribal belt, where Taliban and al Qaeda-linked terrorists have carved out strongholds used to plot attacks on the country.
Pakistan has lost more than 3,000 soldiers in the fight against home-grown insurgents but has resisted US pressure to do more to eliminate havens used by those fighting the Americans in Afghanistan.
Pakistan, a strategic US ally, has been trying to break the back of Taliban for several years. But the terrorists have proven resilient, staging suicide bombings and other attacks on the military and police in the country.
Earlier this month, terrorists armed with rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons fought their way into PAF Kamra airbase in a brazen challenge to the nuclear-armed country's powerful military.
Separately, TTP key commander Tariq Afridi was reportedly killed by his brother-in-law over a domestic issue in Khyber Agency, media reported on Wednesday.
According to sources, Afridi’s brother-in-law shot him down over a land dispute. Sources said that the leader of the banned organisation was riding a horse when his brother-in-law opened fire on him, killing him on the spot. Afridi was involved in various terror attacks on security forces and civilians across the country. The TTP commander was involved in the kidnapping of the late Polish engineer Piotr Stanczak in 2009, and several other incidents of kidnapping for ransom. Afridi was also reported to be a member of the banned organisation Lashkar-e-Jhangvi.
The Taliban group has not confirmed the report regarding the killing of their key commander. agencies
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk