Musharraf defends Pakistani anti-terror resolve

Pakistan President Gen. Pervez Musharraf today claimed that tribesmen backed by the Pakistan army have killed about 300 foreign militants near the Afghan border during a weeks-long offensive.

Musharraf also rebutted doubters of Pakistan’s commitment to crush the Taliban and al-Qaida, insisting that he was not “bluffing” his allies.

Fighting broke out last month in the lawless South Waziristan tribal region between mainly Uzbek militants with links to al-Qaida and the tribes who had sheltered them since they fled the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001.

“The people of South Waziristan now have risen against the foreigners,” Musharraf said in a speech at a military conference in Islamabad.

The toll he gave was far higher than one provided by Pakistani army officials.

They said that between 150 and 230 militants had died in the fighting, and about 40 tribesmen.

Rahimullah Yousafzai, a Pakistani journalist and expert on the Taliban, said he suspected the government of exaggerating the scale of the battle.

The Pakistani government wants “to reassure the Americans that the peace deals are working,” he said.