Pakistan army destroys 3 al-Qaida hideouts near Afghan border, killing several militants

Monday, January 15th 2007, 9:56 pm

By: News On 6

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) _ Pakistan troops destroyed three suspected al-Qaida hideouts near the Afghan border, killing several members of the terror group, the army said Tuesday.

The military carried out the operation in South Waziristan tribal region after receiving information that 25 to 30 al-Qaida members were hiding there, said army spokesman Maj. Gen. Shaukat Sultan.

``We believed several of them were killed, but we don't have a body count,'' he said.

Sultan said some of terror group members at the sites were foreigners, but ``no high-value target was believed to be there.''

Sultan said the destroyed al-Qaida hideouts were located in an isolated area near the village of Zaoola, located in the general area where the government in September had signed a controversial peace deal with tribal elders to halt military operations against militants.

In return, the local militants and tribal elders at the time had promised that they would neither shelter any foreign militants, nor they would target Pakistani security forces and pro-government elders.

But the government has not signed any such deal in South Waziristan, where the military has carried out scores of operations against al-Qaida and their local supporters after the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, has deployed about 80,000 troops in its tribal regions, mostly in North and South Waziristan in an effort to flush out militants.