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PESHAWAR, March 20: Thousands of troops battling foreign militants holed up in South Waziristan on Saturday captured over 100 suspected Al Qaeda remnants and their local supporters, a senior military official said.
Also on Saturday, 13 people, including women and children, were killed and seven others wounded when the vehicles they were travelling in came under attack from helicopter gunships.
"Over 100 people have been captured, many among them could be foreigners. But I cannot say how many of them could be foreign militants and how many locals supporters. They are going to be interrogated by our intelligence agencies and only then will we be in a position to say something with certainty," Corps Commander Peshawar, Lt-Gen Safdar Hussain, told Dawn.
"The operation is under way and a house-to-house search is on. There is still some resistance. We made full use of our artillery and cobra helicopters. The operation will continue till we have wiped out the entire bunch of them," he said.
Other government and military officials acknowledged that resistance from militants holed up in Shin Warsak and Kaloosha had dropped, but maintained that this could either be due to heavy casualties on that side or they had changed positions.
Lt-Gen Hussain had no figures about casualties among the militants and said he would be able to tell that only when the search had been completed. But an official source had put the death toll among the forces at 17 on Friday.
The corps commander acknowledged his troops had suffered more casualties on Saturday but declined to give any figure. "We are still counting," he said.
Local residents in Wana said that at least 13 people, including six children and four women, were killed when the vehicles they were travelling in came under attack from helicopter gunships.
The incident occurred at Ghwa Khwa near Karikot, about 6km south of Wana, after the army extended its operation to the village of nearly 20,000 people, they said.
"Casualties amongst civilians could be higher," said a resident in Karikot, adding he had seen people carrying their dead and wounded on charpoys to hospitals in the regional headquarters in Wana due to road-blockades by the army and paramilitary forces.
"There are no vehicles plying on the road. I walked seven kilometres to reach my village," he said. "The scene here is absolutely chaotic and disturbing." But Lt-Gen Hussain said the vehicles were attacked when his troops came under intense fire from the mud compound they had emerged from.
"Our men came under heavy fire from that compound and then we saw three vehicles leaving the place, breaking through the inner and outer security cordon. There have been casualties on our side due to the fire from that compound and therefore, we directed the Cobra gunships to fire," he explained.
"We don't know whether there were terrorists inside those vehicles or families. We had given civilians three hours at the start of the operation to leave that area and they shouldn't have been there in the first place," he said.
The corps commander said his men had picked up intercepts from militants speaking Chechen, Uzbek and Arabic languages.
"They are highly trained and motivated," he said. "They are well-armed and well-equipped also."
The militants used anti-aircraft guns against helicopters flying overhead, he said. "They have everything, from assault rifles to anti-aircraft guns, mortars and rockets. They have flame-throwers which could be used to set a house on fire or burn moving targets."
A Chechen fighter arrested on Friday had a book containing material on making explosive devices, the corps commander said. He said his troops had recovered heavy weapons during the house- to-house search.
HIGH-VALUE TARGET: Despite attempts by military spokesmen to play down speculations about the likelihood of a senior Al Qaeda figure holed up in that area, senior military officials said they did not rule out anything.
"I certainly don't rule out anything," the corps commander said, adding his men had intercepted a communication that said an important man had been wounded and that they needed four men to carry him and another 12 people to provide security cover. "God knows who they wanted to carry and protect," he said. "We thought that it must be somebody important. It is all guesswork."
The speculation that a senior Al Qaeda figure might have been holed up there was triggered after a statement to the effect by President Gen Pervez Musharraf in an interview to an American television news channel on Tuesday.
The media quoting military and intelligence officials speculated that the Al Qaeda man referred to by Gen Musharraf was no other but Osama bin Laden's deputy Dr Ayman Al Zawahiri.
The corps commander said they had intercepted wireless communications that the militants were burying the dead in the area.
"I don't rule out anything," he insisted. But he said he could not say whether the man who had been wounded was dead in the artillery shelling and buried or the militants had been able to sneak him out through the security cordon. "... There are always possibilities of people getting through," he said. He said there had been several attempts by militants during the night and the day to break through the security cordon.
Lt-Gen Hussain said his troops would begin the search on Sunday. "We would know only how many of them are still holding out and how many are dead and wounded when we will have completed the search. It will take a couple of days. But let me tell you the operation will continue till its logical end," he said.
Another senior official said three foreign militants captured during the operation had been shifted to Peshawar for questioning. He said troops had also seized and occupied the house of Noor Islam, one of the five tribesmen accused of harbouring and sheltering foreign militants.
APP adds: Journalists were shown 40 prisoners, all blindfolded and with their hands tied, on a military truck in Wana on Saturday. The army also showed the body of one suspected militant wrapped in a white sheet.
