South Asia News
Pakistani forces kill 10 Taliban militants in tribal region
Nov 30, 2009, 9:56 GMT
Islamabad - Pakistani troops have killed 10 Taliban militants in the country's restive north-western tribal region that borders Afghanistan, a security official said on Monday.
Major Fazalur Rehman, a spokesman for the paramilitary Frontier Corps, said the rebels died during a security action in Kurram, one of the eight tribal districts where Pakistani forces are carrying out assaults against Taliban and al-Qaeda militants.
'Our forces also destroyed five vehicles including the vehicle of a local commander,' said Rehman.
The Kurram district is emerging as a new centre of Islamist militancy as hundreds of Taliban militants fleeing the ongoing operation in South Waziristan tribal region take refuge there.
Predominantly a Shiite-Muslim region, the Kurram district has seen deadly sectarian violence between Shiite and Sunni Muslim tribesmen with the Taliban supporting the Sunni fighters.
In return, the local Sunni militants provide Taliban militants, who are also Sunni, with shelter and facilities to launch cross-border attacks on international troops in Afghanistan.
Early this year, more than 200 people were killed and hundreds more injured in weeks of fighting between the rival Muslim groups.
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