KHYBER AGENCY/Peshawar – At least 55 militants including the spokesperson of Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) were killed and dozens other injured in military operations in different agencies of Fata on Wednesday.
At least 31 militants including the spokesman of outlawed Bara-based Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) were killed and several others wounded in fighter jets’ strikes and artillery shelling carried out by Pakistan Army here in different parts of Tirah Valley of Khyber Agency, security officials said.
Security officials said the fighter jets targeted suspected hideouts of the militants in parts of Tirah Valley including Sandana, Nangrosa and some other areas. The spokesperson of Mangal Bagh’s defunct organisation LI, Salahuddin Ayubi, along with his six companions were killed in Sipah area of Tirah Valley in Bara, officials and sources in LI confirmed.
However, the casualties of 31 militants of LI and TTP, who were killed in bombardment, could not be verified by the independent sources. The security forces have expedited ground and aerial raids after ‘Khyber-II’ military operation launched in Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency as part of National Action Plan. However some reports, quoting intelligence officials, said fighter jets killed 31 militants allied to the TTP in a missile attack in Khyber region, including the group’s spokesman.
The air force has been pounding positions in the Tirah Valley for days and the military says it has killed scores. At least seven soldiers have also been killed.
The 31 killed in Wednesday’s attack in the Sipah district were from the Lashkar-e-Islam, which announced an alliance with the Taliban earlier this month, the intelligence officials said. According to a private TV channel, at least eight suspected militants were killed in a separate military operation in Orakzai tribal region.
Security forces targeted the militants after an improvised explosive device (IED) blast in Sabak area of Orakzai.
In yet another separate raid, at least 16 militants including a commander were killed in clashes with the security forces in Shabak area of Lower Kurram Agency.
Around 80 militants and seven soldiers have been killed so in fierce clashes between security forces and terrorists in aerial and ground operations in Khyber Agency during last five days. There were key commanders among those killed in the bombing, said a security official without disclosing their identities. A US drone strike killed 11 Pakistani Taliban militants in Kunar in northeastern Afghanistan, intelligence officials said on Wednesday, hours after a strike killed at least nine militants in the same area. They said six or seven senior Taliban commanders had been killed, a claim the Taliban denied.
“I am sitting here in Kunar along with several other people but our fighters and commanders haven’t been killed in a drone strike,” Ehsanullah Ehsan, said spokesman for the Taliban faction, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan Jamaatul Ahrar.
The Pakistani and Afghan Taliban share a similar militant ideology but operate as separate entities.
No one tracks drone strikes in Afghanistan – many of them take place in remote regions and are not reported – but Taliban commanders say that fighters there have been increasingly targeted since late last year.
The strikes come amid warming relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, traditionally hostile neighbours who each accuse the other of harbouring insurgents to act as proxy forces.
Relations improved after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was elected last year. Pakistan says it is supporting potential peace talks between the Afghan government and Afghan Taliban.http://nation.com.pk/national/26-Mar-2015/li-spokesman-among-55-killed-in-fata-operations
LI spokesman among 55 killed in Fata operations : report in The Nation, Mar 26, 2015
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