Seven Taliban fighters killed in Pakistan: police

Sun Jun 21, 2009, 2:09 am ET

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AFP) –

At least seven Taliban fighters have been killed in a gunfight with local vigilantes in northwest Pakistan, police said.

A group of rebels fleeing towards northwestern Chitral district was intercepted by local vigilantes in the village of Patrak in Upper Dir district after which intense gunfight broke out, police chief Ejaz Ahmed told AFP.

"Seven (Taliban fighters) were killed in the fighting," he said, adding that police had blocked possible escape routes out of the area to try and catch the fleeing insurgents.

Officials have said up to 1,000 Upper Dir villagers earlier this month formed a vigilante mob and stormed three villages where suspected Taliban were hiding out.

They killed six of them to avenge the bombing of a mosque in the village of Hayagai Sharqai in which 38 people died on June 5.

Upper Dir is near three northwest districts hit by the Pakistani military offensive aimed at crushing rebel fighters after they flouted a peace deal and thrust towards the capital Islamabad.

The offensive has the backing of the United States and enjoys broad popular support among Pakistanis exasperated by worsening Taliban-linked attacks, which have killed more than 1,960 people in the nuclear-armed country since July 2007.

7 Taliban fighters killed by Pakistan citizens' militia

By Associated Press Writer

June 21, 2009

ISLAMABAD –

A citizens' militia trying to drive out the Taliban killed seven Taliban fighters in a two-hour firefight in Pakistan's troubled northwest, police said Sunday.

Ejaz Ahmed, police chief in the Upper Dir region, said another militant was wounded in the fighting late Saturday night near the village of Patrak, about four miles (seven kilometers) east of Dir Khas, the region's main town and district headquarters.

Several civilian militias, known as lashkars, have emerged in Upper Dir since a suicide bombing on a mosque two weeks ago that was blamed on the Taliban killed at least 33 people. The militias carry out patrols and have been pursuing remnants of Taliban fighters who had tried to expand their influence into the area.

Ahmed said scores of Taliban fighters have been trapped and killed by the militias in several villages, with police cutting off escape routes. The Taliban who were killed Saturday had been trying to flee when they came across the militiamen and opened fire, he said.

"Due to heavy losses, Taliban fighters have been attempting to escape the area under cover of dark, and last night's incident was one such attempt," Ahmed said. He said no civilians were killed in the fighting.

The report could not immediately be confirmed due to military restrictions on media access to the area.

In the most striking example of growing anti-Taliban sentiment, up to 1,600 tribesmen in Upper Dir cleared three villages of Taliban fighters two weeks ago, killing at least six Taliban fighters.

Troops continued Sunday to try to clear a road blocked by the Taliban fighters in the nearby South Waziristan tribal area, where shelling and bombing of suspected militant targets has been increased and ground troops have been moving into position in the past week since the government announced the military would go after Pakistan's Taliban commander, Baitullah Mehsud.

A military statement Saturday said 37 Taliban fighters died when troops retaliated after the Taliban fighters blocked the main South Waziristan road near the town of Sarwaki. They were the first Taliban fighters' casualties of the offensive in South Waziristan to be confirmed by the army. There was no word about further casualties in the army update on the situation Sunday.

But two intelligence officials said six suspected Taliban fighters were killed when a military jet pounded their positions minutes after they fired three rockets that missed a military camp. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they are not authorized to speak to media.

South Waziristan is Mehsud's tribal stronghold, a chunk of the remote and rugged mountainous region along Pakistan's northwestern border with Afghanistan where heavily armed tribesmen hold sway and al-Qaida and Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding.

Pakistan is shifting the focus in its fight against Taliban fighters from the northwestern Swat Valley, where troops have been pushing Taliban fighters back for almost two months, to a new and much tougher battleground in the Afghan border region.

Washington supports both operations, and sees them as a measure of nuclear-armed Pakistan's resolve to take on a growing insurgency after years of failed military campaigns and faltering peace deals. The battle in the tribal region could also help the war in Afghanistan because the area has been used by militants to launch cross-border attacks on U.S. and other troops.

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Associated Press writers Habib Khan in Khar and Zarar Khan in Islamabad contributed to this report.