3 Taliban commanders among 70 killed in Orakzai airstrikes

* Security officials issue list of 8 wanted Taliban from Aligram area of Swat

The Daily News, Pakistan, Monday, May 24, 2010

HANGU/MINGORA:

At least 70 Taliban, including three key commanders, were killed and more than 50 injured in security forces’ airstrikes on Sunday.

Sources told Daily Times that helicopter gunships and fighter jets pounded Taliban hideouts in Dabori, Khadizai and Mamozai areas of Upper Orakzai. A training facility and six Taliban hideouts were destroyed.

The sources said three key Taliban commanders were also killed in the airstrikes. However, Taliban did not confirm the deaths of their leaders.

List: Meanwhile, security officials released a list of eight wanted Taliban in Aligram area of Swat district’s Kabal tehsil and asked them to surrender without further delay, warning them of strict action, APP reported.

The list was put up at various prominent places asking the Taliban to immediately surrender or prepare themselves for dire consequences. The wanted terrorists include Naimatullah, Noor Muhammad, Khair Muhammad, Shakirullah, Mian Mubarak Shah, Ziaur Rehman and Faridoon.

Earlier on Friday, a local jirga expelled 25 families of absconding Taliban after the expiry of the deadline given to the on-the-run Taliban expired on Thursday.

Nipki Khel Qaumi Jirga had asked the terrorists to surrender by May 20, which resulted in the surrender of 115 absconding men.

Orakzai and Khyber are two of the country’s seven semi-autonomous ethnic Pashtun tribal regions, where Taliban and their al Qaeda allies fighting both the Afghan and the Pakistan governments entrenched themselves after US-led forces ousted the Taliban in Afghanistan in late 2001. abdul saboor khan/app