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WEEKLY
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| First drone attack in Kurram kills 26 |
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Tuesday, February 17, 2009
By Iqbal Hussain, Ali Afzal Afzaal & Mushtaq Yusufzai
SADDA/PESHAWAR: US spy planes on Monday carried out the first-ever attack in the Kurram tribal region, killing 26 suspected militants and seriously injuring several others, official sources said.
However, senior Taliban commanders operating in the Lower Kurram tribal region put the death toll at 18, majority of them Afghan nationals.Tribal and Taliban sources told The News from Sadda, the headquarters of the Lower Kurram Agency, by telephone that three US spy planes were seen hovering over the area during the attack on militants’ alleged training centres.
They said the planes fired four Hellfire missiles around 9:00 am that hit a primary school building and an adjoining house reportedly inhabited by Taliban militants. The residents said both the buildings were flattened in the attack, inflicting heavy losses on the inmates. According to the sources, Taliban militants had been living there for the past two years.
The locality, known as Surkh Pul and is about 18 kilometres south of Sadda, was once reserved for Afghan refugees and a school was built for their children. After the forced repatriation of the Afghan refugees from the area, the militants reportedly started arriving there and rebuild some of the damaged houses.
The sources said the US planes targeted the school and the adjacent house, where around three dozen militants were residing. Political Agent Kurram Agency Arshad Majeed confirmed the drone attack while talking to media persons.
He, however, argued that since the area was out of the writ of the government, therefore, he would not give details about the loss of life and the damage to the property. The tribal sources said dozens of Taliban militants immediately cordoned off the damaged buildings and did not allow even the tribal militants, who travelled from Sadda and the adjoining villages to take part in the rescue work.
The tribal militants, belonging to Sadda town, told The News they were later permitted to visit the area after the retrieval of all the bodies from the rubble of the two buildings. Villagers said they saw 30 coffins being shifted by the Taliban to an unknown destination in several pick-up trucks. They said seven critically-injured militants were admitted to a hospital in Sadda.
A little-known Afghan Taliban commander, Behram Khan Kochi, was reportedly running the alleged militant training camp. There were no details whether Kochi was killed in the attack. Two senior Taliban commanders told The News on telephone that 18 of their colleagues had been killed in the US attack on the two houses. They said seven of their people were injured and admitted to a hospital.
The Taliban commanders said majority of the slain militants belonged to Afghanistan’s Khost province and they were secretly laid to rest at Ahmadi Shama graveyard near the Pak-Afghan border in Lower Kurram.
They said the identity of only two bodies could be ascertained while the rest were disfigured beyond recognition. Taliban militants said they could not reach in time to take part in the rescue work as three drones were flying over the area even after the attack.
Local residents said the US spy planes had been flying over the area for the past five days. According to the tribesmen, they feared drone attacks after militants began their activities publicly and set up roadside checkpoints.
According to the government officials, it was the first US attack in Kurram tribal region and 86th in the tribal areas. Majority of the US attacks had taken place in South and North Waziristan and the Bajaur tribal region.
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briefs...
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ISSN 1563-9479 
