PESHAWAR/RAWALPINDI, June 11: The Pakistan Air Force jets and military helicopter gunships carried out bombing runs in the remote South Waziristan tribal region on Friday
as Pakistan Army launched an operation to flush out foreign militants.
Credible sources told Dawn that PAF F-7s jets and military helicopter gunships bombed targeted positions in the Shakai valley, about 17km to the west of Wana, the regional headquarters, to hit suspected hideouts of foreign militants.
The bombing runs continued for about 45 minutes, the sources said. There was no information of any collateral damage but military officials insisted that chances of civilians having been caught or killed in the operation were minimal as most of the local population had already moved out of the area.
Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan, the director general of ISPR, said the exact number of casualties was not known due to the fluid situation in the area. He said that so far five bodies of militants had been brought to Wana and the rest were being retrieved.
The sources said that at least one Pakistan Army soldier was killed and three others received minor injuries during the day-long sporadic exchange of gunfire with militants.
The sources said that the jets and helicopters used Precision Guided Missiles (PGMs) to hit compounds used by foreign militants and their local protectors. The bombing raids were conducted as thousands of soldiers of Pakistan Army, about the size of one brigade, moved from their bases in Zari Noor to mount a ground offensive against foreign militants, believed to be in their hundreds.
Officials said that the military planners particularly targeted Mandata village in Shakai which had several compounds owned and operated by foreign militants. The jets and helicopters targeted a cluster of three mud compounds, reportedly used as a training facility by foreign militants.
Artillery fire on another compound triggered two big explosions, indicating that the militants also had an ammunition dump in the area, the sources said. Also hit during the operation, being dubbed an extension of Operation Al-Mizan, was an abode of Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan leader Qari Tahir Yaldashev.
It was not immediately known whether the IMU militant, whose presence in Kaloosha in March during a military operation had triggered speculation that a 'high value target', meaning a senior Al Qaeda leader, was also hiding in the area.
"We don't know that yet. He may be out there and he may not be there," commented a senior official. But he said that Yadash had been reported to be visiting the compound, off and on.
Security officials acknowledge that foreign militants had either owned or rented houses from local Waziri tribes on good sums of money and had turned the area into their stronghold.
Maj-Gen Shaukat Sultan said the security forces were concentrating on three sets of targets, some 3/4kms from Shakai. He said the security forces had destroyed the house of a local militant, Eida Khan, which he said had been used by an Al Qaeda financier, Abdal Hadi al-Iraqi, who had been occasionally staying there and distributing money among other militants.
The ISPR DG showed satellite images of the compounds hit during the operation and acknowledged that coalition forces in the War on Terror had been providing technical assistance in tracking down foreign militants.
"It was difficult to penetrate their security cordon," commented one knowledgeable source. Officials said that the next 24 hours could decide the direction of the military operation.
They said that the army, whose total strength stands at about two divisions or roughly about 20 thousands, intended to gradually fan out in the region, sweeping the area before connecting with their comrades on the other side of the boundary with North Waziristan.
"This whole thing may take three days to one week. We would know how things shape up in the next 24 hours," one official said. The operation takes in its sweep a 30 square kilometre stretch which has a total of 1,600 houses.
Officials said the operation was launched following attacks on military posts in Tiarza that had left 15 military and paramilitary soldiers dead and 10 others wounded. Officials said that they were targeting 16 houses that had been used or were being used by foreign militants.
Efforts were being made to galvanize the tribal lashkar yet again to flush out militants. Soldiers from the Special Services Group were also ready to go out and conducted search operation in the compounds, the sources said.
Some people still stuck in the valley had hoisted white flags on their houses, indicating they were willing to give up and ready to pinpoint the hideouts of foreign militants, they said.
Officials said the military had not encountered any stiff resistance except some sporadic gunfire, here and there. "These militants are highly trained and are moving about to change their positions. The fact that they survived the bombing runs and are still putting up a fight shows just how trained they are," commented one official.
There were fears that militants might launch retaliatory strike elsewhere in the tribal region. Paramilitary troops had been put on high alert in the regional headquarters to guard against any overnight attack.
