15 terrorists killed in Shawal air raids

Seven FC soldiers wounded in roadside bomb attack in South Waziristan

PESHAWAR/ PARACHINAR/ DI KHAN:

Fresh air strikes in North Waziristan tribal region killed at least 15 terrorists on Tuesday. In neighbouring South Waziristan, seven paramilitary soldiers were wounded in a roadside bomb attack on a convoy of the Frontier Corps.

Warplanes targeted eight hideouts of terrorists in Shawal Valley of Datta Khel Tuesday morning, according to a statement issued by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR). The hideouts were decimated and the 15 militants inside were killed, it added.

The claim could not be independently verified because the region is off-limit to the media. A massive military operation, codenamed Zarb-e-Azb, has been ongoing in North Waziristan since mid-June 2014. Most parts of the agency have been cleansed, but some militants are still holed up in the Datta Khel area.

In the neighbouring South Waziristan, Taliban militants detonated a homemade bomb near an FC convoy in the Kund Sarai area of Tiarza tehsil of Ladha on Tuesday. A security official confirmed the attack, saying seven paramilitary soldiers were wounded. A faction of the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement emailed to the media.

Subsequently, security forces cordoned off the area and mounted a search operation. Local residents claimed fighter jets and helicopter gunships also shelled the Kund Sarai area.

In other violence, security forces repulsed a terrorist attack on a checkpoint situated in the Qaimatay area on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Kurram Agency. Officials claimed the attackers suffered heavy casualties in the counter-offensive by the security forces.

One official said more than 50 terrorists sneaked into Kurram Agency from Afghanistan and attacked the security checkpoint with heavy weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades. The troops manning the checkpoint repulsed the attack, inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy. The defeated terrorists fled back to their bases in Afghanistan.


Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2016.