News
Thursday, July 07, 2011
Afghan Taliban attack Upper Dir villages* Official says 600 terrorists attacked border villages of Nusrat Dara and Kharo, fighting soldiers and pro-government tribal militia
ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR: Up to 600 terrorists from Afghanistan attacked two Pakistani villages on Wednesday, officials said, the latest in a campaign of large-scale raids on civilians and security forces.
Terrorists stormed the border villages of Nusrat Dara and Kharo in Upper Dir region, fighting soldiers and pro-government tribal militia.
“According to reports from the two villages, between 550-600 terrorists launched the attack at around 5 in the morning and the fighting continued for several hours,” police official Abdul Sattar told Reuters.
Another official said four pro-government tribesmen who fought along with troops were wounded in the attack. Paramilitary troops and police were sent to the villages in Upper Dir district to help armed tribesmen there who were trying to fend off the insurgents, local police official Gul Fazal Khan said. The terrorists torched two schools and a mosque in the village of Nusrat Dara, and destroyed a school in the adjoining village of Saro Kili, said Ghulam Muhammad, a top government official in Upper Dir. They used rockets, mortars and heavy machine guns along with assault rifles. Security forces killed three terrorists and captured three others during the fighting, he said. Two members of a militia fighting the terrorists were killed and two others wounded, he added.
Information from the area is difficult to verify independently because it is remote and dangerous.
Separately, Pakistan-based terrorists attacked troops in another tribal region of North Waziristan on Wednesday. Intelligence officials said troops backed by helicopter gunships killed three terrorists and wounded five in the firefight. Five soldiers were also wounded.
Pakistan says more than 55 soldiers have been killed in several attacks from across the border over the past month. The raids have raised tension between the neighbours as they battle protracted insurgencies by Taliban and al Qaeda-linked terrorists.
Pakistani Taliban fighters who fled to Afghanistan in the face of army offensives have joined allies in Afghanistan to regroup and threaten Pakistan’s border regions again, analysts say.
Pakistan blames Afghanistan for giving refuge to terrorists on its side of the border, leaving its troops vulnerable to counter-attack when it chases them out of the tribal areas and into Afghanistan.
Kabul in turn has blamed Pakistan for killing dozens of civilians in weeks of cross-border shelling. agencies
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk