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| ’Copters bomb militants to recover US vehicles |
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Wednesday, November 12, 2008
By our correspondent
BARA: Enraged residents blocked the busy Pak-Afghan highway on Tuesday to protest the death of a student during an assault by military gunship helicopters on the militants loyal to Baitullah Mehsud as choppers continued to pound suspected hideouts of the militants in the Khyber Agency for the second consecutive day on Tuesday.
Aerial attacks were conducted against the militants in Janda Baba Ziarat of the Mullagori area in Jamrud Tehsil of the tribal agency. However, there were no reports of any casualty in the attack.
Residents said anti-Taliban fighters, who had set up a trench, narrowly escaped being hit in the strafing by two gunship helicopters. The militants had escaped by then and apparently remained unhurt in the attack.
Earlier, about 30 to 35 militants riding a Humvee armoured personnel carrier and a jeep of the US Army drove towards the Mullagori area from Jamrud. They had snatched the two vehicles on Monday after having waylaid 13 trailers transporting supplies for the US-led Nato forces in Afghanistan.
Tribesmen in Mullagori area said the militants abandoned the two snatched vehicles on the road near Malakanano village after learning about the arrival of up to 500 personnel of the Army, Frontier Corps and Khasadar. The troops took the vehicles into their possession. The fate of another Humvee vehicle was not known.
The militants had snatched 13 trailers and not 15 as reported earlier. They had intercepted the trailers at four points in the Sur Kamar and other areas beyond Jamrud in the Khyber Pass and hijacked them along with the drivers, who were later freed. The militants emptied the containers, mostly carrying wheat, and distributed the goods among the people and kept some for their own use.
One of the trailers was loaded with two Humvees and jeeps, which were captured by the militants and driven around later on the Jamrud Road. The militants even put a white-cloth banner inscribed with the name of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) headed by Baitullah Mehsud on one of the Humvees.
Tribal sources said the trailers may have been retrieved but all had been emptied. The authorities had reportedly offered Rs 1 million to the militants and sent a Jirga to urge them to release the trailers and the snatched Humvees. However, the militants refused to do so. It forced the political administration of the Khyber Agency to request the Army helicopters to attack the militants. The aerial attack scattered the militants but there was also collateral damage with a boy getting killed and four other civilians receiving injuries.
On Tuesday, relatives of the deceased boy, Rahim, along with local residents, brought the body to the Pak-Afghan highway in Jamrud. The protesters blocked the international route for hours, bringing the vehicular traffic to a complete stop.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
