Showing posts with label jets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label jets. Show all posts

Wednesday, 9 July 2014

Jets pound militants in NWA, kill 13



 













MIRANSHAH: After a few days of lull, the Pakistan Air Force fighter jets on Tuesday again pounded seven suspected hideouts of militants in North Waziristan and reportedly killed 13 terrorists.
The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) issued a brief statement to the media about the latest air strikes in the Degan village, which had been attacked earlier as well.The press release didn’t provide further details about the air strikes and the identity of the slain militants.

Degan is located in the Dattakhel Tehsil, near the Afghan border, and is considered a stronghold of the North Waziristan-based Taliban headed by Hafiz Gul Bahadur.Hafiz Gul Bahadur’s group isn’t part of the mainstream Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), led by the Afghanistan-based Pakistani Taliban commander Mullah Fazlullah.

It was the second time that jet fighters carried out bombing in Dattakhel after the launch of the military operation in North Waziristan on June 15. Hafiz Gul Bahadur has until now remained neutral and has announced a ceasefire due to Ramazan till the 10th day of Eidul Fitr and directed his fighters not to attack the security forces.

Taliban sources said some of Gul Bahadur’s fighters had attacked a security checkpoint called Tipo in the Spinwam Tehsil a few days ago, killing two soldiers and causing injuries to a few others. The military authorities, however, didn’t confirm this report and said the soldiers died in a blast caused by an improvised explosive device (IED).

Also, despite repeated warnings by the military authorities and local political administration, the majority of the residents are said to be still residing in Dattakhel and its adjoining villages.

Miranshah and Mir Ali, which are the two major residential and commercial towns in North Waziristan, were largely in control of the militants from the TTP, Uzbeks, Arabs, Chechens and Punjabi Taliban while Gul Bahadur and his fighters dominated Dattakhel when the military launched the operation on June 15.

The militants and residents have vacated both Miranshah and Mir Ali and the adjoining villages but Dattakhel is still said to be in control of Gul Bahadur and his men. Also, residents haven’t vacated Razmak, Dossali and Garyoom tehsils as well as Shawa and Spinwam under arrangements with the army and the administration in return for guarantees that they won’t allow the militants to hide in their areas.

Thursday, 24 April 2014

23 killed as jets pound militant hideouts in Khyber Agency



PESHAWAR: Pakistani fighter jets pounded suspected militant hideouts in Khyber Agency near the Afghan border on Thursday killing twenty-three extremists and injuring several others, Geo News reported on Thursday.

The operation comes despite efforts by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's government to engage the Taliban in talks to end years of fighting with an insurgency seeking to topple the democratically elected government in the capital Islamabad.

"Terrorist hideouts were engaged by fighter jets in Khyber agency early (in the) morning today," the army's press wing said in a text message sent to media.

Nine militants’ compounds were also destroyed during bombing by the fighter jets.

It said it was a response to a number of recent attacks against police and civilians in Islamabad and Peshawar.

A senior military official in Peshawar said the operation, which started early on Thursday, was still under way.

"After the jets, Pakistan army ground forces also launched operations in the area," he said.

Last week the Pakistani Taliban - a loose alliance of militant groups separate from but allied to the Afghan Taliban - formally ended a 40-day ceasefire but attempts to resume talks have continued nonetheless.

Representatives of both sides met in Islamabad on Wednesday, agreeing to pave the way for the next round of negotiations aimed at finding a compromise that would convince the Taliban to lay down their weapons.

Tuesday, 1 April 2014

Trying to sell small arms, fighter jets to Saudi Arabia: Sartaj


LONDON: Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz has said Pakistan wants to strike a balance between Saudi Arabia and Iran to ease tensions between the two countries.

In an interview with BBC's Urdu Service, Sartaj Aziz said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will visit Iran in May or June to discuss bilateral relations and world issues. When he was asked if Pakistan was sending arms to Syria, he said there was no specific agreement about Syria in the present circumstances.

Pakistan was following a neutral policy on Syria in line with UN resolutions. He said that sectarian divisions were very harmful for the Islamic world.

Sartaj further said Islamabad was making efforts to sell small arms and fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia. He said it was strange that objections were being raised about it, though all world nations wanted to sell their weapons to other countries. He said there was no difficulty for Saudi Arabia to purchase weapons from any other country. There was no need for creating any doubts on the issue, he added.

Over Pakistan-Iran gas pipeline project, the advisor said that the project was intact, but due to sanctions the time limit for its implementation would have to be reset.