Continuing its crackdown on Taliban militants in the volatile tribal region close to Afghanistan, the Pakistan Army used ground and air attacks killing 50 militants, as the rebels struck back wiping out a pro-government tribal leader, along with his wife and son.
Using helicopter gunships and heavy guns, the Army pounded militant hideouts at Dabori and Ghiljo, killing 15 militants and wounding 15 more, security sources said. Five militant hideouts were destroyed in the bombardment. The security forces also shelled Kasha area, a stronghold of the Taliban near the border with Afghanistan, killing another 25 militants. Ten militants were killed in combing operations in nearby areas.
A soldier also died in the exchange of fire in the encounter, in which 15 other militants were injured. Armed with automatic rifles and grenades, Taliban fighters stormed the home of a pro-government tribal elder Mullah Malik Tor, killing him, his wife and son and later blew up his house. “Mullah Tor and his family died in the attack, while another woman was injured,” Bajaur agency’s assistant political agent Mohammed Jamil Khan said. Tor had recently raised an anti-Taliban militia in the Chaharmang valley and had returned to the area recently after the Army cleared it of Taliban hideouts. Security officials have claimed that over 700 militants have been killed since the Army launched an offensive against the Taliban in Orakzai agency earlier in 2009.
Meanwhile, the international Red Cross has said it will continue giving first aid training and kits to Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, despite drawing angry emails from around the world and criticism from an Afghan official after the practise was publicised. The International Committee of the Red Cross trained “over 70 members of the armed opposition” in first aid in April, along with more than 100 Afghan police and civilians.
***
‘Interpol will not act on arrest warrent’
ROD McGUIRK
CANBERRA, (Australia)
May 27: Former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said in a television interview that Interpol would not execute a Thai warrant for his arrest on terrorism charges because it was politically motivated.
Thaksin, who was ousted in a 2006 military coup and later fled abroad ahead of a corruption conviction, told Australian Broadcasting Corp. by telephone on Wednesday that he had never supported violent protest. The ABC did not say from where Thaksin was speaking, but said he was living in exile and hiding from Thai authorities.
The Thai criminal court ordered an arrest warrant on Tuesday on terrorism charges that accuse Thaksin of a role in fomenting two months of anti-government unrest by his Red Shirt supporters in Bangkok that left 88 people dead. Thaksin said Interpol, the Paris-based international police intelligence-sharing association, would not act on such a groundless and politically motivated warrant. —AP