Taliban driven out of key battleground: Pak PM

Sat Dec 12, 6:15 am ET

ISLAMABAD (AFP) –

Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Saturday the army had driven the Pakistani Taliban fighters out of South Waziristan, a key battleground in the nation's fight against the Taliban insurgency.

Armed forces this year launched multiple operations across the northwest tribal belt bordering Afghanistan, the stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban and a haven for other militants.

"The operation has finished in South Waziristan, now there is a discussion of taking it to Orakzai agency," Gilani told reporters in eastern city of Lahore.

Military officials were not immediately available for reaction to Gilani's comments.

About 30,000 troops poured into the South Waziristan in October to clear the tribal district of Taliban strongholds, prompting a surge in bomb blasts and attacks in retaliation.

A wave of blasts have killed 72 people since Monday, with the deadliest hitting eastern Lahore, where 51 people were killed in a dual suicide bombing at a market in Pakistan's second most populous city.

Many militants are believed to have fled to Orakzai district in the centre of the tribal belt, where troops killed nine militants and destroyed their two hideouts in airstrikes on Friday.

It is not possible to independently verify the death tolls as the areas are out of bounds to journalists and aid workers.

The UN said Friday more than 40,000 civilians had fled the military operation in Orakzai and were in need of humanitarian assistance.

The army claims to have cleared the Swat valley of the militant threat in a spring offensive, although sporadic militant attacks and clashes continue, while they say they are making good progress in South Waziristan.

Pakistan is in the grip of a fierce insurgency by Islamist extremists, with more than 2,680 people killed in attacks since July 2007.

Taliban denies report of al-Qaeda commander killed in Pakistan

    ISLAMABAD, Dec. 12, 2009 (Xinhua) --

The Pakistani Taliban sources have denied the U.S. report claiming to have killed a top al-Qaeda leader in northwest Pakistan's tribal area, local media said Saturday.

    The U.S. intelligence on Friday claimed to have killed top al-Qaeda commander Abu Yahya al-Libbi in a drone attack on a car in North Waziristan tribal agency.

    However, the Taliban sources in the region denied the report, saying the two men killed in a Tuesday airstrike were Arabs and belonged to Saudi Arabia.

    The American media quoting the U.S. intelligence sources claimed one among the two men, who died in the Tuesday attack, was in fact an important al-Qaeda commander, Abu Yahya al-Libbi. He was being hunted down since his escape from a U.S. prison in Bagram, Afghanistan in 2005.

    After his dramatic escape from the highly fortified prison at the Bagram air base, the U.S. officials claimed, al-Libbi came to North Waziristan and set up his base camp and from there he used to send fighters across the border into Afghanistan to fight against the coalition forces.

    Since Friday morning, the U.S. media have started speculations that an important al-Qaeda commander had been targeted in Pakistan. First they said a high-value target was killed in a drone attack in South Waziristan on Thursday.