A suspected senior al Qaeda member whom the Pakistani army thought it had surrounded in a remote area on the Afghan border is probably a Chechen or Uzbek militant leader, a Pakistani commander said on Saturday. An intelligence source said earlier two Chechen militants, identified as Danyar and Quaran Ata, were believed to be in the area and there was a possibility a prominent Uzbek militant, Tahir Yaldashev, was with them.
Earlier, Pakistan troops and helicopters rained fire on the rebels in their well-fortified compounds. "They are extremely professional fighters. They wait for our troops to move within five to seven meters and then open fire," Hussain said. "They are taking us from every direction whenever our troops have moved in and we are not knowing if the locals are with us," he said. "With an undefined target like this, it is practically chasing shadows." Hussain said the battle would soon be over but his forces had other targets in their campaign to sweep foreign militants out of Pakistan's often lawless and largely autonomous tribal lands. "It is going to be an unending operation. It is a series of operations we are going to launch," he said.
Hardline Islamic clerics have denounced the attack, warning it could breed terror strikes. Dozens of students in the western town of Dera Ismail Khan protested against it on Saturday. "The government has made this drama for the benefit of the USA," said protester Sherbaz Ansari. "The result is the tribal people have suffered. We are sure there are no terrorists in our area, no al Qaeda."
| So what's with the shootouts, Sherbaz? |
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