Pakistani troops kill five militants
Death toll rises sharply over 3 days of fighting
KOHAT, Pakistan - A Pakistani army helicopter killed five Taliban militants yesterday in a restive northwestern town, taking the death toll in three days of fighting to 13, government and military officials said.
An offensive was launched late Wednesday in the Hangu district after militants killed 15 soldiers in an ambush last weekend and threatened to execute about 50 troops and government officials being held hostage by Pakistani Taliban.
The hostages include police, paramilitary officers, and state government officials. In exchange for their release, the Taliban are demanding the release of four of their fighters who were captured last week.
Early yesterday, the army helicopter spotted a vehicle filled with Islamist fighters in an area close to the Orakzai tribal region, previously one of the most peaceful of Pakistan's seven semiautonomous tribal lands.
"The helicopter fired at a vehicle in Zargari area, killing five militants and wounding six," a government official in the region said. After the attack, militants managed to take away their wounded comrades, while the dead were shifted to Hangu.
A military official in the region confirmed the action. He said 13 militants had been killed in the past few days.
On Thursday, troops cleared two militant strongholds in Hangu district. Residents and military officials said the security forces followed up by targeting militant positions in the nearby hills with artillery and helicopter gunships.
Hundreds of villagers fled the combat zone yesterday, after officials relaxed a curfew on a main road leading to Kohat, a garrison town about 25 miles northeast of Hangu.
The security situation across the northwest has deteriorated in recent weeks amid mounting pressure by Western allies on Pakistan to stop militants making cross-border attacks on their troops in Afghanistan.
Afghan, US, and NATO officials say the flow of Islamist guerrillas into Afghanistan has increased after Pakistan's new civilian government, sworn in three months ago, sought to quell violence inside Pakistan by engaging Taliban factions in talks.
Doubting the government's sincerity, Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud suspended talks last month.
On Thursday, Mehsud warned violence would increase unless the provincial government in Peshawar, the capital of North West Frontier Province, resigned.
Mehsud was blamed for many of the suicide attacks that ripped through Pakistan in late 2007, including one that killed former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, whose party now heads the three-month-old coalition government.
Mehsud denies involvement in Bhutto's assassination, and many of her own party think he was being made a scapegoat.
Last week's insurgent ambush on the military convoy came days after police arrested a militant known as Rafiuddin, who is a deputy of Mehsud.
The provincial government has negotiated peace deals with militants and tribes, but concern is growing that the deals have strengthened the hand of Taliban and Al Qaeda militants.
