 |  | The aircraft struck the militants late on Sunday, hours after commandos stormed an office building and rescued 39 people taken hostage after an attack on the army headquarters. -- PHOTO: REUTERS |
ISLAMABAD - PAKISTANI aircraft attacked Taleban militants in their South Waziristan stronghold near the Afghan border as the government said a ground offensive against the Al-Qaeda-linked fighters was imminent.
| STOCKS NOT DENTED MEMBERS of the Pakistani Taleban and Al-Qaeda were suspected to have been behind Saturday's attack on army headquarters in Rawalpindi, near Islamabad, which ended a week when suicide bombers struck in the capital Islamabad and Peshawar, killing more than 50 people. Security officials said there appeared to be links between the attackers, who were disguised in army uniforms, and militant groups based in Punjab province. |
'The jets hit and destroyed two of their hideouts in Makeen and Ladha and we have a total of about 16 militants killed,' a Pakistani intelligence official in the region said.
Pakistani Taleban militants linked to al Qaeda have launched numerous attacks on government and foreign targets over the past couple of years killing hundreds of people.
The military has been conducting air and artillery strikes in south Waziristan for months, while moving troops, blockading the region and trying to split off militant factions.
But a ground offensive, in what could be the army's toughest test since militants turned on the state, has yet to begin. Interior Minister Rehman Malik told Reuters in an interview in Singapore the offensive was 'imminent', adding: 'There is no mercy for them because our determination and resolve is to flush them out. -- REUTERS
ISLAMABAD - PAKISTAN'S army said on Monday it was waiting for government orders to launch a strike against Taleban strongholds in the north-west tribal belt after a brazen hostage siege left 19 people dead.
Suspected Taleban-linked gunmen staged an audacious day-time raid on the military nerve centre near Islamabad on Saturday, shooting their way into a building and barricading themselves inside with 42 hostages.
In total, eight militants, eight soldiers and three hostages were killed in the crisis that unfolded at the heart of the military establishment in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, which ended with a commando raid Sunday.
The army claimed success in an offensive against the Taleban earlier this year in the one-time tourist paradise of north-west Swat valley, but a wave of attacks in the past week show the Islamist threat is far from quashed.
Now the pressure is on the follow up the Swat push with a full-fledged operation on the Taleban bastions of North and South Waziristan, in a tribal region outside direct government authority and a known Al-Qaeda bolthole.
Military and government officials have been saying for months that they will attack the Tehreek-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP) movement in their stronghold, but despite sporadic air strikes, no timeframe has been set. 'The army is fully prepared to launch an operation against Tehreek-e-Taleban,' said a military spokesman. -- AFP
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