| It's Reuters, of course, but don't they seem a bit more antsy than usual in this article? |
Pakistani army helicopters fired on suspected al Qaeda militants in mountains near the Afghan border today as Pakistani forces pressed on with a campaign to expel foreign militants. Dozens of people have been killed in battles since Tuesday including 13 civilians, many of them women and children, who some officials said were killed in an attack by a helicopter gunship.
| And don't forget the baby ducks ... |
''First there was small-arms fire, perhaps targeting the helicopters,'' one witness near the fighting in Pakistan's wild tribal west, said of today's firing. ''Then the helicopters hit back. We heard loud explosions.'' Overnight attacks on the militants, who have been defending clusters of heavily fortified mud-walled compounds, were not as intense as the previous night, residents in the area said. The military said the battle to the west of the town of Wana was just one step in their campaign, and fresh targets would be dealt with soon. ''The operation is continuing,'' said military spokesman Major-General Shaukat Sultan. But in an attack likely to inflame anger in the area, 13 civilians died on Saturday when their vehicles were fired on. A senior security official said militants had fired on the vehicles but two local officials said an army helicopter had attacked them after troops had come under attack. |