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Taliban over run South Waziristan FC fort

* Military says 7 FC men, 40 militants killed
* Taliban claim 16 FC men killed, 24 captured

By Noor Alam

LADAH: At least seven Frontier Corps (FC) personnel and 40 militants were killed as hundreds of miscreants stormed the Sararogha Fort in South Waziristan on Tuesday night, military sources said on Wednesday.

“About 200 miscreants attacked Sararogha Fort, which was manned by 42 FC men, last night,” military spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said.

He said 15 of the men managed to reach Jandola Fort while the whereabouts of the remaining was not known, after insurgents armed with rocket launchers and assault rifles blasted their way into the remote outpost. “Forty militants were killed in an exchange of fire when they managed to enter the fort after blowing up a wall,” the spokesman added. Unrest grew in South Waziristan after the government singled out Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud for his alleged involvement in the assassination of former premier Benazir Bhutto on December 27 in Rawalpindi. Residents said eight FC personnel were killed and another four injured in the fighting as their fort came under fire from small and heavy arms.

Taliban claims: Taliban spokesman Maulvi Omar claimed that 16 FC personnel had been killed and 24 more were captured. He said only two of his men were killed, while a dozen of them had sustained injuries. “The fort is still in our control,” the self-proclaimed Taliban spokesman added in a phone call to the offices of a newspaper. A source, meanwhile, told Daily Times the dead also included eight Shia FC personnel, whom the militants killed by slitting their throats.

The South Waziristan political agent called an emergency jirga to cope with the situation on Wednesday. However, the meeting was postponed till Thursday morning because of the absence of two key elders - former MNA Maulana Merajuddin and Senator Saleh Shah of the MMA. Sources said the jirga was convened to ensure the safety of the FC personnel who had been captured by the militants. Residents said heavy artillery shelling from the Zeri Noor army camp in Wana and the Jandola camp was targeting suspected militant positions in Ladah, Makeen, Sararogha and Spinkai Raghzai.

Locals said the elders who met the political agent had demanded that the army officials stop artillery shelling – which was causing civilian casualties and damage to private property – before convening the jirga.



n ‘BB was killed in Qaeda-Taliban operation’ —Page A12

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