Share this story!            

17 soldiers killed in Waziristan attack

* 15 militants killed in retaliatory fire
* 5 militants killed in Mir Ali

By Haji Mujtaba and Iqbal Khattak

MIRANSHAH/PESHAWAR: Militants continued their attacks on security forces in the country’s northwest on Wednesday, killing 17 soldiers and wounding up to 12 others in two strikes against military convoys, officials said, as the army said that paramilitary soldiers shot dead five militants in a separate incident.

A military convoy was attacked in the Ghazlami area, 40 kilometres west of Miranshah, when it was coming from Lwara Mandi.

“Seventeen soldiers were martyred and 12 others injured in the clash,” military spokesman Maj Gen Waheed Arshad told Daily Times. He denied that the militants had ambushed the convoy.

“They (the militants) first attacked the convoy with rockets and then opened fire with automatic weapons,” a security official, asking not to be named, told Daily Times. “In this type of attack, the targeted people have little time to respond and get higher casualties,” he added.

Gen Arshad said that 12 to 15 militants were killed in retaliatory fire. He said that it was not known yet which militant group was attacking the security forces.

A soldier and four civilians were injured in a remote-controlled bomb attack on another military convoy, while a 12-year-old boy received bullet injuries when the soldiers opened fire in self-defence.

Militants also fired five rockets on a military base in Miranshah late on Tuesday night, but there were no damages, army sources said.

Gen Arshad said that five militants were killed when paramilitary troops challenged them near Mir Ali. However, witnesses said the FC soldiers shot at a “mentally-retarded” man in Ptasi Adda near Mir Ali bazaar when he ignored their calls to stop.

The government will hold a meeting with a 45-member jirga that negotiated the peace deal with the militants last year.

“We have been invited for a meeting with NWFP Governor Ali Jan Orakzai on Thursday (today). We don’t know the agenda, but the meeting will obviously focus on the peace deal,” Malik Waris Khan from Khyber Agency, who is among 45 other elders from six tribal regions to attend the meeting, told Daily Times in Peshawar.

Separately a landmine exploded overnight outside the home of politician Ajmal Khan, who served as federal sports minister in the 1990s, in Miranshah. The blast destroyed his front gate but caused no casualties, a relative said.

Meanwhile late on Wednesday evening, security forces fired mortar shells on suspected militant positions on hilltops surrounding Miranshah.

Home | Main

Share this story!