Pakistan kills 13rebels in airstrike

Source: Agencies  |   2008-11-10  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

AIRSTRIKES pounded suspected insurgent hideouts in a northwestern Pakistan tribal region bordering Afghanistan yesterday, killing 13 alleged militants in the latest round of a bloody army offensive, officials said.

Government official Jamil Khan said the strikes yesterday targeted six militant hideouts and killed at least 13 insurgents. He confirmed the casualties.

Meanwhile, a remote-controlled bomb planted on a motorcycle killed a passer-by and wounded five others in a market in the southwest Baluchistan province. An ethnic Baluch nationalist group claimed responsibility.

The remote-controlled blast occurred in Baluchistan's Sui town, police officer Abdul Majid Dasti said.

Baluchistan Republican Army spokesman Sarbaz Baluch said the group was behind the attack. He claimed the explosion killed an opponent of the movement, but police would not confirm that.

The Baluchistan Republican Army is part of a low-level insurgency that has long rattled the province. The insurgents are seeking greater provincial autonomy and more control over the area's natural resources.

United States-allied Pakistan faces a high level of militant violence, especially in the northwest, where Al-Qaida and Taliban-linked militants involved in fighting against American forces in Afghanistan have found sanctuaries.

Elsewhere in Pakistan's northwest, security forces fatally shot a local journalist late on Saturday, officials said. The killing occurred in the Swat Valley area. The journalist, Mohammad Shoaib, apparently did not stop his vehicle when signaled to do so, said a police officer.