Foreigners among 32 killed in Orakzai, North Waziristan

Security forces alos successfully repulsed a militant attack on a check post in Sherin Dara area of Orakzai Agency

PESHAWAR:

At least 32 militants, including foreigners, were killed in fresh military action in North Waziristan and Orakzai tribal regions on Tuesday.

According to the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR), military warplanes strafed the hideouts of militants in scattered areas of Datta Khel tehsil of North Waziristan. At least 17 militants, including foreigners, were killed and several of their hideouts were flattened in the blitz, it added without sharing further details with the media.

Separately, security forces successfully repulsed a pre-dawn militant attack on a check post they were manning in the Sherin Dara area of Orakzai Agency. The attackers were forced to retreat after suffering heavy casualties.

Security forces said they retrieved seven bodies after the attack. Tribal sources, however, said that 15 militants were killed in the clash and that the fleeing militants took away eight bodies with them.

Orakzai Agency shares a border with Khyber Agency where a security operation has been ongoing since mid-October. It was the 4th militant attack on the Sherin Dara check post. In the previous assaults, eight soldiers were killed and 15 injured. Around 50 militants were also killed in these assaults, according to an official tally.

Security forces have been fighting local militants and their foreign cohorts in North Waziristan since mid-June in an operation, codenamed Zarb-e-Azb. According to the military’s figures, so far 1,200-plus militants have been killed and air and ground offensives.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2014.