100 militant suspects held in Pakistan fighting

Pakistan’s military has arrested more than 100 suspects in their five-day assault on al-Qaida militants holed up in mud fortresses along the border, the military commander in charge of the operation said today.

The region is where al-Qaida number two Ayman al-Zawahri is believed trapped

Those detained included foreigners and the local Pashtun tribesmen who have been sheltering them, said Lieutenant General Safdar Hussain, who is in charge of the sweep.

Hussain said 400 to 500 militants are believed to still be fighting from within the heavily fortified compounds, using mortars, AK-47s, rockets and hand grenades in a face-off with troops.

“These people have been here for a long, long time. They are extremely professional fighters,” he said. “They have tremendous patience before they open fire.”

The military showed journalists 40 prisoners, all blindfolded and with their hands tied, who were under heavy guard in the back of a military truck in Wana, the main town in the tribal South Waziristan region where the battle was raging.

The army also displayed the body of one suspected militant wrapped in a white blanket.

Hussain said troops were convinced the compounds held a “high-value” target, but he said they had no confirmation the man was al-Zawahri.

He said the militants attacked his troops from all directions during an initial assault on Tuesday and the bulk of the army’s 17 casualties all died.

“It’s like chasing a shadow,” he said. “The resistance we’re facing is tremendous.”

As he spoke, Cobra attack helicopters hovered overhead, some swooping toward the battle zone.

The fighting has forced an exodus of thousands of terrified civilians, who have poured out of the battle zone deep in South Waziristan. Many have taken refuge in Wana, but there were indications the battle was following close on their heels.

Loud explosions and gunfire could be heard early today in Gangikhel village, a hamlet of simple mud dwellings just three miles west of Wana. Previous fighting in Kaloosha, Azam Warsak and Shin Warsak was about twice that distance from Wana, close to the border with Afghanistan.

Brigadier Mahmood Shah, the chief of security for tribal areas in north-western Pakistan, said that some of the prisoners had already been taken for interrogation to the provincial capital, Peshawar.

Security officials said the men included Pakistanis, Arabs, Chechens, Uzbeks and ethnic Uighurs from China’s predominantly Muslim Xinjiang province, where a separatist movement is simmering.

No senior al-Qaida leaders were believed to be among them, but authorities hoped they would provide a better picture of the terrorists’ heavily fortified lair.

There have been reports that at least 80 ethnic Uzbek Islamic militants, led by Qari Tahir Yaldash, a Taliban ally and deputy of slain Uzbek leader Juma Namangani, are in the Waziristan region.

Namangani was killed during the US-led coalition’s assault on Afghanistan that began in late 2001.

“Our people are interrogating them to determine who these terrorists are,” Shah said. “Some of them are foreigners.”