World | Pakistan
7 dead as Taliban attack tribal elders
Taliban militants attacked Pakistani tribal leaders near the Afghan border, triggering a gunbattle and an explosion that killed seven people, an official said on Tuesday.
- AP
- Published: 23:40 November 18, 2008
Khar: Taliban militants attacked Pakistani tribal leaders near the Afghan border, triggering a gunbattle and an explosion that killed seven people, an official said on Tuesday.
Elsewhere in Pakistan's volatile northwest, a soldier and seven militants were reported killed in separate clashes.
The gunbattle occurred late on Monday in Bajur, a lawless region in Pakistan, where troops and tribal militias have been battling Taliban guerrillas for more than three months.
Israr Khan, a government representative in the semi-autonomous region, said Taliban gunmen surrounded a group of elders from the Mamund tribe in a fort-like compound in the village of Inayat Kili.
The hourslong gunbattle killed a commander of the Taliban fighters as well as two guards of the elders' compound, Khan said. Four elders also died when an explosion hit the compound, he said. It was unclear what caused the blast.
Emergence
Pakistani and US officials have applauded efforts by some tribal leaders to establish militias to fight Taliban and Al Qaida militants blamed for attacks on foreign troops in Afghanistan as well as targets in Pakistan.
The militias' emergence in Bajur and other parts of Pakistan's northwest has drawn comparisons with so-called Awakening Councils - the mostly Sunni groups that have joined forces with the Americans against Al Qaida in Iraq.
However, some observers warn that arming more groups in the impoverished border region will only sustain the anarchy in which violent extremism has flourished. Militants have repeatedly attacked pro-government elders in shooting and suicide bomb attacks in recent months, killing scores.
Kidnapped
Taliban spokesman Maulvi Umar confirmed the death of a militant commander in Monday's clash. He claimed the Taliban captured seven elders and said their fate will be decided by Maulvi Faqir Mohammad, the Taliban leader in Bajur.
Khan said three people kidnapped by the insurgents returned to their homes on Tuesday, but several Mamund elders were missing. The Pakistani military also is in the midst of an offensive against militants in the Swat Valley, a northwest region that was once a popular tourist destination.
Security forces in the Kabal area of the restive valley killed seven militants on Tuesday, according to the army media centre. In another incident in the valley's Kanju area, insurgents ambushed an army convoy, killing a soldier, the statement said.
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