Posted on 09/02/2008 11:44:11 PM PDT by HAL9000
via translation-
Pakistan: 15 people killed in a raid of international forces in Afghanistan
PESHAWAR (Pakistan) - At least 15 people, including civilians, were killed Wednesday in the north-west Pakistan in an attack involving helicopters international forces based in Afghanistan, told AFP the heads of security services Pakistani.
"Four helicopter gunships have crossed the border and launched the attack," assured AFP one of these sources, who requested anonymity.
"Helicopters from Afghanistan were involved," confirmed to AFP Mowaz Khan, a senior official of the administration of the tribal district of South Waziristan where the raid took place in the border village of Jalal Khel.
Only American and British troops operating in southern Afghanistan for the international forces have this type of helicopters.
Mowaz Khan assured that the helicopters "of NATO" had even filed soldiers on the ground, but no other source has confirmed this information.
According to the local official, women and children were among those killed in that raid led to the dawn when the villagers finished their last meal before beginning a day of fasting at the beginning of Ramadan.
"We confirm that there has been an attack on a border village but we are still in the process of gathering information", commented to AFP Maj. Murad Khan, one of the spokesmen of the Pakistan Army.
In Kabul, a spokesman for the International Force for Security Assistance (Isaf) of NATO has assured AFP he was not aware of such an operation, adding that the mandate the Isaf prohibited him to intervene in Pakistan except in firing artillery from Afghanistan, but only if its soldiers essuyaient fire from the neighbouring country.
A spokesman for the international coalition, ordered, that one by the USA, also claimed to be unaware, as well as its counterparts in command of the U.S. Army responsible for Asia and based in Tampa, Florida (USA).
The U.S. military or the CIA have recently intensified their fire missiles from unmanned Drone aircraft in Pakistani tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, where Washington is convinced that the Afghan Taliban and Al Qaeda forces have reconstituted their thanks in support of Pakistani Taliban.
But raids by attack helicopters are extremely rare. Several American media had reported recently that the USA now considering direct attacks, including ground troops on Pakistani territory, Washington accusing Pakistan of not doing enough effort to eliminate the threat of Taliban and 'Al-Qaeda in tribal areas.
Widows, orphans, kittens, puppies, nuns, saints, unicorns.
Latter day SOG teams.
Might as clean house while there is a power vacuum in the capital.
If Bin Laden actually lives and we know where he is, now is the time.
We need to do much better...15 just ain’t enough!
More more more !!!!
If true this is big.
Afghanistan ping.
/Boots on the ground in southwaz
maybe
Interesting
Al-Qaeda deputy 'nearly captured'
Pakistani troops narrowly missed a recent opportunity to capture al-Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahiri, an official said.
A location in Mohmand tribal region on the Afghan border was attacked after Zawahiri's wife was seen there, said Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik.
But the soldiers did not find the couple, he said.
Pakistani and western officials say the country's north-western tribal region is a sanctuary for Islamic militants.
In recent weeks, Pakistani troops have been carrying out operations against militants' bases on the border between Mohmand and Bajaur tribal districts.
This two districts are located just opposite Afghanistan's Kunar province to the west, and are considered to be the most likely hiding place for Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda operatives, including al-Zawahiri.
'Close connection'
"We certainly had traced him [Zawahiri] at one place, but we missed the chance," Mr Malik told a press conference in capital Islamabad.
"So he is moving in Mohmand, and of course, sometimes in Kunar, mostly in Kunar and Paktia [provinces]," he said.
Mr Malik did not say when this happened.
The interior ministry chief also said that a Pakistani umbrella organisation of militant groups, the Tehrik-e Taleban Pakistan (TTP), was "an extension of al-Qaeda".
"We have certain evidence that there is a close connection and similarities between al-Qaeda and TTP," Mr Malik said.
"If al-Qaeda is to move in a tribal area, they have to look to the TTP for refuge.
The TTP is a host to al-Qaeda, and is their mouthpiece," he said.
Zawahiri, an eye surgeon who helped found the Egyptian Islamic Jihad militant group, is often referred to as Osama Bin Laden's right-hand man and the chief ideologue of al-Qaeda.
He is also believed by some experts to have been the "operational brains" behind the 11 September 2001 attacks in the United States.
Zawahiri was number two - behind only bin Laden - in the 22 "most wanted terrorists" list announced by the US government in 2001 and continues to have a $25m bounty on his head.
Zawahiri was reportedly last seen in the eastern Afghan town of Khost in October 2001, and went into hiding after the fall of the Taleban.
He escaped a US missile strike in January 2006 near Pakistan's border with Afghanistan aimed at killing him.
The attack killed four al-Qaeda members.
I had read a Paki article the other day that said Mrs Z-Man was running around in the area where some drone attacks had taken place. Here's hoping that a Hellfire or two catches up with them.
IMHO this should be under breaking news as... it is... and it is an incursion into a sovereign country - something we have not done since invading Iraq.
However, I guess since it doesn’t have anything to do with Palin, politics, or pregnancies it’s not important
just doing the jobs that pakastani’s dont want to do
That may well explain why they were willing to send boots across the border.
.....essuyaient fire .....
My favorite part of the article. Around the world, there might be 7 people who can use this word.
I guess Karzai finally sent his forces into Pakistan
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