Army kills 12, arrests 10 in offensive against al Qaida

Описание: (2 Oct 2003)
Angore Adda, North Waziristan, North West Frontier
1. Aerials of North Waziristan Tribal area
2. Various helicopter
3. Various injured man on stretcher being loaded into helicopter
4. Operation commander, Major General Faisal Alavi speaks on field phone
5. Various Pakistani troops with captured militants
6. SOUNDBITE: (English) General Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan Army spokesman:
"They are putting up stiff resistance. The Pakistani security forces fired only when they were compelled to fire. They first announced to those people to surrender voluntarily and thereafter they made an effort to apprehend them alive and once they fired upon by the other side, only then they opened fire and the fighting is still going on."
7. Pakistani troops on a truck
8. Various operations post
9. Various bodies of suspected militants
10. SOUNDBITE: (English) General Shaukat Sultan, Pakistan Army spokesman:
"It's difficult to say whether they're al-Qaida or who they are. That will be done only after the investigation."
11. Various captured armaments
12. Various local women look on
13. Soldier waves away camera
STORYLINE:
Pakistan's army launched its largest-ever offensive against al-Qaida and other militants in the remote tribal region bordering Afghanistan on Thursday, killing at least 12 suspects and arrested ten others.
It was not immediately clear if any top-ranking al-Qaida operatives were among them.
Osama bin Laden and his alleged number two, Ayman al-Zawahri, are believed to be hiding somewhere along the porous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Taliban fighters are also believed to use the area as a staging post to launch attacks inside Afghanistan.
The operation came on the same day as a Taliban ambush which killed 10 government troops and two children traveling with them in southern Afghanistan.
The troops moved into North Waziristan early Thursday after receiving word that al-Qaida operatives had sneaked into the area from Afghanistan, the Pakistan army said in a statement.
There was fierce fighting throughout Thursday. Army helicopters and soldiers were organising the operation from a base camp at Angore Adda, just a kilometre (half mile) from the fighting, and the last Pakistani town before the border with Afghanistan.
Army officials said one Pakistani soldier was also killed and two wounded in the operation.
Hand grenades, AK-47 assault rifles, anti-tank mines, audio cassettes and other documents were seized during the operation.
In a unprecedented move, journalists were invited to observe the operation, the first time the media has been permitted to record military activity in the autonomous tribal areas.
The sweep came as US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and US Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca had been due to arrive in Pakistan on Thursday for talks on the war on terrorism, but Pakistan's Foreign Ministry announced the visit had been postponed for "scheduling reasons."
Several high-profile al-Qaida arrests in Pakistan have coincided with major international diplomatic events.
The areas of North and South Waziristan, both in Pakistan's ultra-conservative North West Frontier Province, are home to Pashtun tribesmen who have for centuries maintained a fierce independence and who share the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islam.

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