Posted on 05/28/2008 8:35:51 PM PDT by milestogo
Eight militants killed in Bajaur blast
Thursday, May 29, 2008
By Mushtaq Yusufzai
PESHAWAR: At least eight militants, affiliated with regional militant commander Maulana Faqir Mohammad, were killed and two others seriously injured when a pick-up truck they were travelling in was blown up in the troubled Salarzai subdivision of Bajaur Agency on Wednesday morning.
There were conflicting reports about the cause of the blast, as one report said a pick-up truck, carrying militants to Afghanistan's restive Nuristan province for attacks on the US-led Nato forces, was allegedly targeted by an American spy plane.
Local residents said the moment they heard a loud explosion, the US spy plane, also called drone or Predator, was hovering over the town. However, they did not see any missile fired from the drone. "The hit probably came from the drone as the vehicle was completely destroyed, and its burnt down wreckage scattered all around," said a local resident, Gul Mohammad, while talking to The News by telephone.
He said the vehicle carrying around 10 militants along with weapons and ammunition was struck near Malkano village in Salarzai Tehsil, a town controlled by the Taliban. Tribal sources said local militant commander, Qari Saqib, was leading his fighters to Nuristan when they were attacked.
It could not be confirmed whether the commander was killed or escaped the attack. However, two seriously injured fighters were immediately shifted to a nearby town Inayat Kalley for medical aid. A doctor reportedly close to militants provided treatment to the militants.
Also, local residents said dozens of armed militants cordoned off the main Inayat Kalley bazaar and closed the routes leading to Goal Market where the wounded militants were being treated. However, another report suggested that a hand grenade inside the vehicle was exploded, which ignited other explosives dumped in the pick-up truck.
However, there were also rumours that their vehicle was blown up by local tribes people with improvised explosive device (IED), as the militants were on a mission to secure release of one of their colleagues captured by the local people after an IED attack on a vehicle of retried major of Bajaur Levies, Fazal Karim on Tuesday in Malkano village, Salarzai.
Maj (retd) Karim and people travelling with him in the car escaped unhurt as the blast occurred soon after the vehicle passed through the area where the IED had been planted. However, they fired shots from their AK-47 assault rifles on a terrified youth escaping the spot towards a house after the blast.
Karim and his armed tribal fellows chased the fleeing youth, entered the house and recovered the youth identified as Ahmad Ali, 18, son of Maulvi Faqir, resident of Batwar village in Salarzai.
The elders interrogated the youth who reportedly admitted that a local cleric Maulana Niamatullah had assigned him the task, telling him that it was a Non-Governmental Organisation vehicle.
He was later produced before a tribal Jirga which discussed two options -- execute him for the crime or handing him over to the government. But the Jirga on Wednesday forgave him after he promised to refrain from joining militants again.
However, Jirga announced to locate Maulana Niamatullah, militants' local commander in Salarzai, and take action against him under the tribal customs and traditions for instigating innocent youngsters against others. Local residents reported that militants had distributed pamphlets in the town, warning of a reprisal if any harm was done to the youth.
10 more.
Nice.
Any which way you look at it, the bastards are dead.
Perhaps these are the guys that Obama is seeing - “I see dead people.”
No, dummy, those are Democrat voters.
Just another reason to opt for the extended vehicle warranty. BTT.
To paraphrase the militant villagers, “... coulda been the whiskey, mighta been the gin, coulda been the three or four six packs, I don’t know, but look at the mess I’m in.”
They have to be hiding in holes afraid to show their very faces and miserable hides for fear that about any time they do, they will be annihilated like these ten were.
They have to be hiding in holes afraid to show their very faces and miserable hides for fear that about any time they do, they will be annihilated like these ten were.
WHAT HAPPEN?
R.I.P.
Damn,...another Toyota shot to hell and back. Too bad. I’m very saddened. Deeply, deeply saddened.
I demand better paint jobs on those Predator drones.
On to many, many more.
Mohammad, you and your goat must get a room now; you can't faqir!
The sad part is no pictures.
Irrespective, the truth of what I said in the earlier comment still stands for the entire region.
That means at least one firefight less heading my grandson's way across the Kunar.
Don't care how they got sent to Allah - just so long’s they keep getting sent, preferably before they get to Taliban Central = where they were headed...
There were a goodly bunch of them sent on their way last week by my grandson's unit...One encouraging thing: It seems they are now targeted from every faction = dangerous to be them, even in Pakistan, now. 'Sounds like locals are fed up with them too...Let it be so.
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