Miranshah fighting leaves 19 dead

Rare clashes between troops and Islamist militants in Pakistan’s North Waziristan killed 19 soldiers and civilians, and wounded nearly 100 others, officials said Tuesday.
The violence prompted a call for “strong action” from the military in what is premier Al-Qaeda and Taliban stronghold, where Islamabad has resisted US pressure to launch a full-scale offensive.
Gunbattles between soldiers and militants are relatively rare in North Waziristan, where insurgents and the military came to an understanding not to attack each other.
But violence flared Sunday when gunmen armed with rockets attacked a military convoy near Miranshah, the main town in the tribal district on the Afghan border.
Among the dead were 12 Pakistani soldiers, three of whom were captured and beheaded, a local intelligence official told AFP.
“Seven civilians, including two children and three women, were killed and 71 others were injured during two days of violence,” the official added.
At least 20 soldiers were also wounded, he said.
On Monday, helicopter gunships attacked a three-storey building housing weapons shops in Miranshah’s main bazaar, causing a huge fire, witnesses said.
Two other intelligence officials in the area confirmed the death toll of 19.
Officials on Monday had put the overall death toll at 15.
Intelligence officials also said 17 militants were killed in the clashes. An AFP reporter saw the bodies of 12 militants.
Calm has since returned, after local tribal elders interceded between the political administration and militants, officials said.
Shops and the main bazaar in Miranshah re-opened on Tuesday, an AFP reporter said.
In India on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on Pakistan to make sure its territory is not used as a launching pad for terror attacks anywhere.
Pakistan says it is too overstretched to launch a full-scale operation in North Waziristan, where Al-Qaeda and Taliban are instead subject to US drone strikes.
But on Tuesday, Dawn called for “strong action”.
“The Pakistan Army must establish its writ in lawless North Waziristan. If the army feels it’s stretched too thin now to open a new front, as it sees it, it must come clean.
“Perhaps then Pakistanis will better understand why US drone attacks happen and under what circumstances these might stop,” the newspaper wrote.
Pakistani-US relations have been in crisis for much of the past year and Islamabad has made increasingly vocal public denunciations of the drone strikes, despite having given initial tacit approval.
Islamabad cut NATO supply lines through Pakistan into Afghanistan after US air strikes killed 24 soldiers on the Afghan border last November.