PAKISTAN'S military yesterday dispatched helicopter gunships to the volatile northwest in support of thousands of angry tribesmen who have laid siege to a group of Taleban fighters.
Meanwhile, in another part of the country's northwest, the army began shelling Taleban hide-outs being protected by a different group of tribesmen, a local official said.
The two battles – one by citizens fighting the Taleban, the other involvin
g villagers sheltering the militants – underscore the volatile nature of alliances and rivalries in the Afghan border region where al-Qaeda and the Taleban have been able to entrench themselves.
The fighting in Upper Dir and Bannu districts came even as troops continued a separate major military offensive to expel the Taleban in the Swat Valley region, also in the northwest.
In the Upper Dir district, a citizens' militia that sprang up over the weekend to avenge a suicide bombing at a mosque grew to more than 2,000 members, area police official Atlas Khan said.
"People back in the villages, especially children, are fetching them food and other supplies. They are doing it because they think the fighters are fighting for their sake, they think it is their common war," he said.
Helicopter gunships struck two villages, Shatkas and Ghazi Gay, where the militants have strongholds, late on Monday and yesterday morning. Some of the Taleban were halted yesterday when they tried to get away to nearby Malik Bai village, which the tribesmen also encircled, police said.
In the Bannu district, about 150 miles south of Dir, the military started shelling in the tribal-controlled area of Jani Khel after tribesmen refused to hand over Taleban militants taking refuge there, an official said.
The full article contains 288 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
