Pakistanis Capture Militant Stronghold

Pakistanis Capture Militant Stronghold
October 25, 2008
Associated Press

KHAR, Pakistan - Pakistan's army captured a militant stronghold near the Afghan border, the military said Saturday, a breakthrough in an offensive against the Taliban and al-Qaida that has sent nearly 200,000 civilians fleeing for safety.

Maj. Gen. Tariq Khan said government forces captured Loi Sam, a strategic town in the Bajur tribal region, earlier this week "and killed the militants who were hiding there."

Bajur is part of Pakistan's tribal belt that has become the refuge of Taliban and al-Qaida fighters waging an intensifying insurgency on both sides of the frontier.

Pakistan's army launched an offensive in Bajur in early August, saying the region had become a "mega-sanctuary" for militants who had set up a virtual mini-state.

Commanders had reported stiff resistance near Loi Sam, which sits on a key road, from local Taliban militants reinforced by foreign fighters including some from Afghanistan.


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