Pakistan Says 160 Killed In South Waziristan Clashes
March 23, 2007
March 23, 2007 -- The governor of Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province says 160 people have been killed this week in battles between Pashtun tribesmen and foreign Al-Qaeda militants near the Afghan border.
Governor Ali Mohammed Jan Aurakzai says 130 militants from Uzbekistan and Chechnya have been killed and more than 60 have been captured.
He says 25 to 30 tribesman have died in the clashes since March 19 near Wana in the semi-autonomous tribal region of South Waziristan.
Aurakzai, a former general in Pakistan's military, says tribal fighters continue to hunt another 200 foreign Al-Qaeda militants who have scattered in the mountainous region.
Aurakzai says Tahir Yuldashev, the leader of the militant Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, was in the area when the fighting started. But Aurakzai would not comment on what might have happened to Yuldash.
(AFP, AP)