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Pakistan army kills up to 80 at Qaeda-linked school

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  • Pakistan army kills up to 80 at Qaeda-linked school

    Good job. It's nice to see the area is taking on some responsibility.

    By Anwarullah Khan
    1 hour, 52 minutes ago

    KHAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pakistani army helicopters killed around 80 suspected militants on Monday in a dawn attack on a religious school run by a pro-Taliban commander wanted for harboring al Qaeda fighters, a military spokesman said.

    The army said the religious school or madrasa in Chenagai, 10 km (six miles) north of Khar, the main town in the Bajaur tribal region bordering
    Afghanistan, was being used as a militant training camp.

    The strike killed almost everyone present in the madrasa, although at least three wounded were taken to hospital in Khar.

    "The compound has been destroyed," Major-General Shaukat Sultan told Reuters.

    "According to our local sources, up to 80 deaths have been confirmed," he said. No ground troops were sent in to mop up.

    Residents said they had seen three or four army helicopters flying over Chenagai at around 5 a.m..

    No prominent militant was believed to be in the compound when it was attacked, Sultan said. Security officials said one of those killed was Maulana Liaqatullah, the pro-Taliban commander who ran the madrasa.

    Sultan said there were no women or children present.

    Some villagers said there were young children among those killed, but Maulana Faqir Mohammad, a militant commander at the target site, told Reuters Television that the dead were aged between 15 and 25.

    Bodies covered with white sheets lay in rows as Mohammad addressed hundreds of gunmen gathered by the ruined madrasa, declaring his support for al Qaeda leader
    Osama bin Laden and Taliban chief Mullah Mohammad Omar.

    "May Allah protect Sheikh Osama. May Allah protect Mullah Omar," the long-haired, bearded militant leader said.

    ISLAMIST PARTY CONDEMNS

    Thousands of tribesmen rallied in Khar chanting "Down with America," "Down with Bush" and "Down with Musharraf."

    The leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, Pakistan's most influential Islamist party, condemned the attack as "barbaric" and claimed it was carried out by U.S.-led forces from across the border.

    "This alien attack... is tantamount to a declaration of war on Pakistan," Qazi Hussain Ahmed told a news conference, while a senior minister from his party resigned in protest from the provincial government in North West Frontier Province.

    Last January, Liaqatullah was believed to have had contacts with al Qaeda number two Ayman al-Zawahri that led to a
    CIA drone aircraft missile attack on Damadola village in Bajaur.

    Zawahri was not present at the time but some al Qaeda operatives were killed.

    Pakistan's lawless tribal belt along the Afghan border has been a haven for Islamist militants for decades. Many al Qaeda and Taliban guerrillas took refuge there after fleeing the U.S.-led hunt for them in Afghanistan after September 11, 2001.

    Monday's attack came two days after 3,000 militants held a rally near Khar, chanting support for bin Laden and Omar.

    Talks between tribal elders and militants to reach a peace deal along the lines of the one struck in North Waziristan last month appeared to have failed, local clerics said.

    A mountainous region that is difficult to access, Bajaur lies opposite Afghanistan's eastern province of Kunar, where U.S. troops are leading the hunt for al Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

    Bajaur is the most north-easterly of seven semi-autonomous tribal regions that make up Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and are home to around 3.5 million people.

    The Pakistan military has close to two divisions, some 30,000 men, in North and South Waziristan, the two other tribal agencies where support for the Taliban and al Qaeda has been rampant.

    The army is deployed on the border in Bajaur, but internal security has been left to locally recruited police and militia.
    Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
    "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
    He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

  • #2

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    • #3
      Wow. We are definitely turning a corner in the War on TerrorTM with the help of our ALLIES!

      GOOD JOB PAKISTAN!!!11

      To us, it is the BEAST.

      Comment


      • #4
        30 or so children among the dead
        So get your Naomi Klein books and move it or I'll seriously bash your faces in! - Supercitizen to stupid students
        Be kind to the nerdiest guy in school. He will be your boss when you've grown up!

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        • #5
          Source, Ollie?

          Sultan said there were no women or children present.
          Although, it wouldn't surprise me to hear they were training children.

          And Sava, why don't you try being silent if you have nothing really to say?
          Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
          "Hating America is something best left to Mobius. He is an expert Yank hater.
          He also hates Texans and Australians, he does diversify." ~ Braindead

          Comment


          • #6
            TV news.
            So get your Naomi Klein books and move it or I'll seriously bash your faces in! - Supercitizen to stupid students
            Be kind to the nerdiest guy in school. He will be your boss when you've grown up!

            Comment


            • #7
              I give this a cautious

              It seems to me, however, that so long as the Pakistani government is unable to control the "tribal region" it's going to remain a serious problem, notwithstanding the occasional airstrike.

              No ground troops were sent in to mop up.
              Because the law don't go 'round there, ya hear?[/Tombstone]

              At least that's my take on it. I could be wrong.

              -Arrian
              grog want tank...Grog Want Tank... GROG WANT TANK!

              The trick isn't to break some eggs to make an omelette, it's convincing the eggs to break themselves in order to aspire to omelettehood.

              Comment


              • #8
                next stop, Jesus Camp

                However, it takes some guts to attack schools like this. In a sense that there will be an outrage from the borderline terrorist supporting fractions and there could be strong reprisals. So as a strategic move it's bold.
                In da butt.
                "Do not worry if others do not understand you. Instead worry if you do not understand others." - Confucius
                THE UNDEFEATED SUPERCITIZEN w:4 t:2 l:1 (DON'T ASK!)
                "God is dead" - Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" - God.

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Pekka
                  next stop, Jesus Camp

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    It was a dumb move IMO (hence Sloww's ).

                    Basically they mostly blew up a bunch of children etc to get to one man they were supposed to sign a truce with that day. I'm sorry but when you start acting like terrorists to kill terrorists, it starts becoming difficult to tell who the actual terrorists are anymore...

                    Take the 'collateral damage' in the strike yesterday. The reports are that most of the people who died at the madrassa were students: children and young men. Most likely very few of them were actually involved in any terrorist activity, and thus wholly innocent in the eyes of the law.

                    Someone like Sloww would say that in the future they stand a very high risk of becoming indoctrinated and becoming terrorists (so it's a bonus they've been killed so young!), but that is a different matter - unless of course by the same token it is OK to kill Israeli children because they all end up conscripted into the army?

                    No the real culprit here is a nation the doesn't give a crap about its people and is happy to kill an overwhelming number of innocent people to get to one man under promise of a truce. Not only that but due to Pakistan's lack of care towards the quake the other year, thousands of orphans who should be being looked after and resettled by the state are being allowed to be taken in by the madrassas for the promise of a roof over their heads and food in their stomach - thus allowing terrorism to perpetuate...
                    Is it me, or is MOBIUS a horrible person?

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      bombing a Taliban R&R center is never a dumb move. Pakistan is where the bastards are and the deal made was that the US wouldn't bomb these places if Pakistan took action to control its own territory. Pakistan is now doing that if reluctantly.
                      Try http://wordforge.net/index.php for discussion and debate.

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                      • #12
                        Mobuis, seeing as you see all Israelis as terrorists or potential terrorists, would you lke to see them all dead?

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                        • #13
                          I don't buy the idea that the "young men" at this madrassa were innocents. Radical madrassas are used as jihadi training grounds. A 15 year old boy, unfortunately, is being trained as a soldier of god, and then sent to kill. I regret the bloodshed, but allowing that training to continue would most likely have resulted in deaths from some sort of terror attack down the road. Pick your poison, basically.

                          -Arrian
                          grog want tank...Grog Want Tank... GROG WANT TANK!

                          The trick isn't to break some eggs to make an omelette, it's convincing the eggs to break themselves in order to aspire to omelettehood.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by MOBIUS
                            Basically they mostly blew up a bunch of children
                            Sultan said there were no women or children present
                            I make no bones about my moral support for [terrorist] organizations. - chegitz guevara
                            For those who aspire to live in a high cost, high tax, big government place, our nation and the world offers plenty of options. Vermont, Canada and Venezuela all offer you the opportunity to live in the socialist, big government paradise you long for. –Senator Rubio

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by SlowwHand

                              And Sava, why don't you try being silent if you have nothing really to say?
                              Because I do have something to say. Intelligent people are able to interpret the true meaning of my comments.
                              To us, it is the BEAST.

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