5 Pakistani Troops Killed in Fort Raid

01/22/2008

Agence France-Presse | January 22, 2008


Militants killed five Pakistani troops in an attack on an army fort Jan. 22, in the latest violence in a tribal area said to be the hideout of the key suspect in Benazir Bhutto's assassination.

The army said rebels launched a pre-dawn attack on the outpost in the South Waziristan region bordering Afghanistan, where Islamist warlord Baitullah Mehsud has been holed up since the former prime minister was killed last month.

An army statement said insurgents attacked an observation post in the village of Ladha and opened fire on the nearby fort at about 1:00 a.m.

"Security forces retaliated with fire causing heavy casualties on miscreants. Five security forces personnel embraced shahadat (martyrdom) and seven others were injured," the statement said.

"However the attack was beaten back, exact number of miscreant casualties could not be ascertained."

Militants have stepped up attacks on troops in the rugged and largely lawless region since Bhutto was killed in a gun and bomb attack in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, on Dec. 27.

Last week Pakistani troops killed an estimated 90 militants in fierce clashes in South Waziristan, long a stronghold of Mehsud and his alleged Al-Qaeda and Taliban allies.

Pakistan's government and the CIA have blamed Mehsud for Bhutto's death.

Ladha fort has come under repeated attacks since last week. Last Friday, troops fought off a "large number" of insurgents in a battle which left seven soldiers and up to 50 rebels dead, the army said.

Earlier, hundreds of militants armed with rocket launchers and Kalashnikov rifles overran another fort in the town of Sararogha in the same region.

The army says up to 50 insurgents also died there and that they have vacated that British colonial-era fort in the tribal zone.

The military meanwhile denied a report that troops had abandoned a third border outpost in the region, in the village of Siplatoi.