Pakistani forces repel insurgent raid, killing 15
MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan - Army helicopter gunships and troops repelled a guerrilla raid on a military checkpoint yesterday, killing at least 15 Islamic insurgents amid escalated fighting in Pakistan's tribal regions.
MIRAN SHAH, Pakistan - Army helicopter gunships and troops repelled a guerrilla raid on a military checkpoint yesterday, killing at least 15 Islamic insurgents amid escalated fighting in Pakistan's tribal regions.
With anger still fresh over the government's deadly assault on Islamabad's Red Mosque, 2,000 women and hundreds of men from a hard-line Islamic group staged a rally in the capital, declaring that the "blood of martyrs" would not be wasted.
Fury has surged among hard-line opponents of President Pervez Musharraf since the army raid on radicals at the pro-Taliban mosque left 102 people dead three weeks ago. Insurgents have since stepped up attacks, particularly at the northwestern frontier.
The assault yesterday by 30 to 40 fighters on the checkpoint near Miran Shah, the main town in North Waziristan, was among the most brazen yet. Taliban and al-Qaeda insurgents are active in this lawless tribal region near the Afghan border.
The insurgents, who traveled in two trucks, had heavy and light weapons. Troops repelled them with gunfire, then called in helicopter support, an army spokesman, Maj. Gen. Waheed Arshad, said.
He said at least 15 insurgents were killed and two soldiers were slightly wounded.
The deteriorating security in Pakistan comes as Musharraf faces increasing criticism from Washington that Pakistan's tribal regions, particularly Waziristan, have become a haven for al-Qaeda. Pakistan denies that is true.
Domestic anger against the military-led government also has grown, particularly among sympathizers of the Red Mosque's clerics, who had spearheaded an Islamic anti-vice campaign in the capital.
At the sprawling Faisal mosque in Islamabad yesterday, about 2,000 veiled women, many dressed in black burqas, shouted support for those killed in the mosque siege and condemned Musharraf. Hundreds of men joined the protest, organized by Pakistan's biggest Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami.
"The blood for the martyrs of Red Mosque . . . will not go to waste!" the demonstrators chanted. "We demand an Islamic revolution!"
