Pakistan Army helicopters bombed a militants’ hideout in a village in North Waziristan in a pre-dawn raid on Saturday, killing up to 20 militants. The air strike occurred at around 3:30am in Darbalooki village, Dattakhel tehsil, some 35 kilometres west of Miranshah. Four helicopters were used in the attack. The bodies of the insurgents could not be found. The killed militants were not identified, and there were conflicting reports about whether they were local or foreigners. A tribal source told Daily Times the helicopters used in the raid were American. The security forces have conducted similar bombing raids in the past in Sadghy, Mir Ali, Masaki, Hisori and Anhar to flush out militants. A press release from Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said the strike was in response to a series of attacks on military convoys in the past few days, and the militants had been using the compound as a base for the attacks. Local Taliban spokesman Abdullah Farhad called reporters on the telephone from an undisclosed location confirming the air raid. He said 18 militants were killed in the attack and they were all locals. “All of them have been buried,” he said, adding that five militants were injured.
Asked how they would respond to the raid, Farhad said: “We are already retaliating.” He said that the pro-Taliban militants in the area had been surprised by the military action as they expected the appointment of the new NWFP governor to mean a scale back of military operations in the tribal areas and more emphasis on dialogue.