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| Afghanistan/South Asia |
| Pakistan says 20 militants are partying 72 virgin style |
| 2004-06-09 |
| Update to the article below... Pakistani forces clashed with heavily armed foreign militants Wednesday, killing more than 20 people, in a mountainous tribal region near the Afghan border where hundreds of Al Qaeda fighters are believed to be hiding, officials and a tribal elder said. The bloodshed follows weeks of failed efforts to get the militants in South Waziristan to surrender to authorities by peaceful means after an army counterterrorism offensive in March that left 120 people dead. Brig. Mahmood Shah, chief of security for Pakistan's tribal regions, said foreigners and local tribesmen had been holed up in four fortress-like houses, about 40 kilometers from the Afghan frontier. He said they traded fire with paramilitary and army soldiers who had surrounded the area. He said about 20 foreign militants and one paramilitary soldier had been killed, and three civilians had died in the crossfire. "The intermittent shooting continued until 4:30 p.m. and then finally it stopped. According to our information up to 20 foreigners have been killed. We have bodies of several of them. One injured is also with us," Shah told the private Geo television network. He said seven of the dead had already been buried, but others were lying ravines and could not be recovered. Earlier, an army statement said the bodies of at least eight militants, some of them foreigners, had been retrieved and one wounded militant captured. The security forces suffered a few casualties, it said without elaborating. Officials gave no information about the nationalities and the identities of those killed and captured in the clash in the Ghat Ghar area, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) west of Wana, the main town in South Waziristan. |
| Posted by:Ol_Dirty_American |
| #1 Would my glittery swimsuited assistante be so kind as to add another 1440 virgins to the Jihadi Totaliser. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2004-06-10 7:44:47 AM |