Pakistan: Jets target N. Waziristan, up to 6 die

Pakistani jets bomb N. Waziristan tribal region, killing up to 6 and raising tensions
 
 
 

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(ISLAMABAD, Pakistan) Pakistani fighter jets targeted suspected Taliban hide-outs in a tribal region near Afghanistan on Sunday, killing as many as six people and raising the odds of a future military offensive there, intelligence officials said.

Elsewhere in the northwest, two bomb explosions killed two people and wounded 15 more in Upper Dir district, police said. The district sits at the edge of Swat Valley where Pakistan army says it is wrapping up a two-month-old offensive against Taliban militants.

Pakistan's military has been targeting the Taliban in several northwestern areas since May, when it launched the Swat offensive to oust the militants, who sought to impose their harsh interpretation of Islam over large areas and are accused of plotting attacks on American troops across the border in Afghanistan.

Sunday's airstrikes in North Waziristan hit several homes near the Afghan border, two intelligence officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. The officials said six people died and several were wounded. They did not say if the dead were militants.

Two local residents, however, said that two people were killed and seven injured, and that all the victims were tribesmen. The witnesses, Shanawat Khan and Akhtarullah, told The Associated Press via phone that three local tribesmen's homes were hit in the Degan village area, roughly 25 miles (40 kilometers) from Afghanistan.

Pakistan's armed forces are laying the groundwork for a full-scale offensive against Pakistani Taliban chief Baitullah Mehsud in South Waziristan, but in recent days, clashes with insurgents and statements by militant leaders in neighboring North Waziristan have raised the possibility of army action there as well.

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  • Posted By: jbz7879 @ 06/12/2009 12:00:22 PM

    what is there to strike in usa -a black man born in africa who is posing to be a semi-muslim -lolz

  • Posted By: jbz7879 @ 06/12/2009 11:59:02 AM

    i will never live in usa or even send my dog to live there -mesmer -go drown yourself in hoover dam -as for dementia your lexicon is that of a rabid dog -as for sea usa will soon be floating in a sea of bankruptcy with chinese lifeboats to save you -but i think they will not take rabid mesmerized imbeciles on board

  • Posted By: mesmer @ 05/23/2009 7:32:14 AM

    Pakistan has turned out to be a worse failed state than Somalia and Afghanistan. Politicians who cannot be trusted to run the country, Army and ISI that cannot be trusted to protect the nation, radical fundamentalist Islamists who cannot be trusted to live cheek by jowl with decent normal law abiding citizens and nuclear scientists who cannot be trusted to keep their nuclear secrets within their own borders.

    Along with all that they have demented guys like jbz7879 who cannot take responsibility for their shortcomings and try to blame it all on the US.

    I say deport all these Pakis from the US! They are a fifth column of jihadists waiting to strike at us.

    Hope Homeland security drives them all into the sea

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