Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

 

55 Pakistanis, Killed by Army Air Strikes on Khyber, Including 12 Civilians

September 1, 2010

Pakistan air strikes on militants kill 55

AFP, September 1, 2010

The death toll from Pakistani air strikes on militant hideouts in a northwestern tribal area Wednesday rose to 55, with reports of some civilian deaths, security officials said.

Pakistani jet fighters Tuesday targeted (alleged Taliban fighters referred to here by AFP editors as "militants") preparing for imminent suicide attacks and destroyed their bases in the Khyber tribal district, which borders Afghanistan, security officials said.

Two military and an intelligence official also confirmed the incident in the Tirah valley and the death toll.

"At least 12 civilians were killed when jets dropped shells on a convoy," a local government official told AFP, requesting anonymity.

In April, Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Kayani made a rare public apology over the deaths of some 60 civilians, also in Tirah valley, during military operations and issued orders to avoid further incidents.

Security officials said the air strikes destroyed militant hideouts, a training centre, an illegal FM radio station and eight vehicles prepared for suicide attack in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

The militants belonged to the Lashkar-e-Islam group and included fighters who fled last year's offensive by the Pakistani military in the northwestern Swat valley, the security official said.

Lashkar-e-Islam, which means Army of Islam, is a domestic Islamist group with ties to the Taliban that has caused unrest in the Khyber region, including attacks on NATO supply vehicles travelling through the area.

Khyber is on the main NATO land supply route through Pakistan into Afghanistan, where almost 150,000 foreign forces are battling to reverse an escalating Taliban insurgency, now in its ninth year.

The district neighbours the northwestern city of Peshawar, which is increasingly the target of Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked bomb attacks.

US officials consider northwest Pakistan a haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants who fled the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan to regroup and launch attacks on foreign troops across the border.

Pakistan has launched several operations in the past two years in Khyber to flush out the fighters.

A senior military official in Peshawar said that he had no information about civilian casualties in the air strikes.

Pakistani forces kill 45 militants: TV

ISLAMABAD, Sept. 1, 2010 (Xinhua) --

Pakistan military helicopters shelled suspected militants and killed 45 in the country's northwest Khyber tribal region, local TV channels reported Wednesday.

Dawn TV, citing security sources, reported that the forces conducted operation in mountainous Tirah valley in Khyber on Tuesday.

Geo television reported that several women and children were among those killed, adding that 15 people also injured in the bombing.

The reports said that the people were returning from a funeral when they came under bombing. It said that the helicopters targeted the vehicles of the suspected militants.

Official sources were quoted as saying that the militants had used the women and children as shield, saying that relatives of the militants would be considered as suspects.

Sources said that the militants were hiding with relatives when the security forces shelled their houses after receiving information about their presence.

The injured were shifted to hospital in Jamrud, the main town in Khyber agency. Two critical injured were shifted to Peshawar, sources said.

Tirah valley considered to be a stronghold of the militant group Lashkar-e-Islam. The Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have also some presence in the area.

In April the security forces killed some 60 tribesmen when the army fighter planes bombed Tirah, the worst incident of civilian casualties. Army chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani had apologized to the people of Khyber agency on the civilian deaths.

Editor: Wang Guanqun

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